This fall, while on a tour of mansions, museums, and masterpieces along the Hudson River, I enjoyed Mother Natures’ landscapes and those of the artists of the Hudson River School. The tour started near the Hudson River in Manhattan where, at the New York Historical Society and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, we were introduced to the landscapes of Thomas Cole, Frederick Church, and Albert Bierstadt, the founding members of this group of artists. As we traveled along the River, the small towns such as Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, and Peekskill, were decked out for a scary Halloween (think Ichabod Crane and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow!). Ultimately we turned east towards museums in Massachusetts to end the tour in Boston.
People: The artists of the Hudson River School. These artists are known for painting the pristine vistas along the Hudson River. They are also known as the forefathers of environmental activism. When the landscape along the river changed as the railroad and industries replaced the lakes and trees, they protested by “canceling” these eyesores from their paintings!
Thomas Cole: View from Mount Holyoke
Diane Billings: View from Olana
Places: Mansions and museums in the Hudson River Valley. Along the river we stopped to view the art at Theodore and Eleanor Roosevelt’s houses and the Rockefeller’s Estate, Kykuit. We also spent an afternoon at the Storm King Art Center, a 500-acre outdoor
sculpture park overlooking the Hudson River. The landscape artist here is Darrell Morrison who uses grasses of varied sizes and colors in wide and curving “sweeps” and “drifts” as his palette. The grasses soften the steel installations by Alexander Calder, Richard Serra, Andy Goldsworthy, and others.
Pies. On our way to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge Massachusetts, the landscape was composed of the vibrant colors of pumpkin patches and farmer’s markets. In keeping with the season and the spirit of Rockwell’s famous painting of a Thanksgiving dinner, the café at the museum was serving pumpkin pie! Usually, I am not a fan of pumpkin pie due to the memory of the time my mother forgot to add the sugar, but the cinnamon, cloves, ginger, allspice and nutmeg, (and some sugar!) in this pie have made me change my mind. A colorful and tasty piescape.
Happy Thanksgiving
