On August 15, at 7:30 pm, in the Gathering Room, Kendal will present a program on “The Hudson River School of Painting” by art historian, Cynthia Andersen.
In this lecture, we will discover a large, loosely knit group of artists including Thomas Cole, Asher Durand, Frederick Church, and John Kensett, who painted landscapes in New York State, New England, and the far West between 1825 and 1875.
Their compositions often followed European formulas derived from the peaceful, balanced landscapes of Claude Lorrain or the more dramatic ones by Salvator Rosa. The Hudson River School artists responded to the rising sense of American nationhood and patriotism by painting America’s wilderness as if it were a new Eden from which a glorious civilization would arise.
Cynthia Andersen earned her B.A. from Hunter College and her Master’s in Education and Art History from Queens College. She currently teaches art history at Westchester Community College.