Boston Flora

Tag: Hudson River School

  • Wednesday, March 23, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – Painting the Romantic Landscape: Claude Lorrain to the Hudson River School, Online

    Innisfree Garden’s 2022 winter lecture series on Romanticism in the Garden continues March 23 at 1 pm Eastern with a talk by John McGiff.

    Join painter and art historian John McGiff to explore the evolution of Romantic ideas in art. In 17th century Europe, when formal baroque gardens like André Le Nôtre’s Vaux-le-Vicomte were being built that express the rational order and mathematical clarity of the Age of Reason, the fine arts began to look at nature differently. This led to the ideological revolution that is Romanticism. From Claude Lorrain’s carefully framed and idealized pastoral views, to J.M.W. Turner and Frederic Edwin Church’s emotionally charged landscape visions, and more contemporary site-specific works by James Turrell and Andy Goldsworthy, the arts have taught us to see, appreciate, and even feel nature in all new ways.

    Innisfree member John McGiff taught art history and studio art for twenty-five years at St. Andrews School in Delaware. Now a Dutchess County resident, John found Innisfree when he began to paint in the garden several times each week. jcmcgiff.com

    Free for Innisfree members, $15 for nonmembers. Register HERE.

    Morning, Looking East Over the Hudson Valley from the Catskill Mountains, Frederic Edwin Church, 1848

  • Thursday, October 16, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – The Origins and Legacy of the Catskill Forest Preserve

    Dr. Paul K. Barten, Professor and Honors Program Director, Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst will speak on Thursday, October 16, from 7 – 8:30 in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum on the topic of The Origins and Legacy of the Catskill Forest Preserve.  The Catskill Forest Preserve was established in 1885 and protected as “wild forest, forever” with an 1894 amendment to New York’s Constitution. This designation represented a major change in public opinion and political will as well as an early success for the fledgling conservation movement. The landscape paintings of Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, and other Hudson River School artists, the stirring fiction of Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper, and the writings of George Perkins Marsh and John Burroughs had a dramatic and formative influence on societal values and attitudes. This opened a new era in which the damage to forest ecosystems by tanbark peelers, “cut and run” loggers, and market hunters could no longer be reconciled with the “the greatest good of the greatest number in the long run” and a thriving tourism industry. The presentation will conclude with some thoughts on where we appear to be as a nation on the forest preservation—conservation—utilization spectrum in the 21st century.  Fee $5 Arboretum member, $10 nonmember.  Thomas Cole painting of Catskill Creek from www.images.fineartamerica.com. Register online at https://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?EventID=1.  

  • Wednesdays, April 3 – April 24, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – Watercolor Plein Air Prep: Color Mixes of the Hudson River Painters with Marjorie Glick

    Using the Fruitlands Museum as a resource, we will study up close the Fruitlands collection of Hudson River School Paintings and then return to the classroom for a color mixing extravaganza, in this four week course beginning April 3 taught by Marjorie Glick. You’ll learn how to translate these mixes into glowing watercolors infused with light. Students will learn the various color combinations used by The Hudson River School to create their luminous skies. You will learn how to apply color through both mixing, glazing, and layering. Students will learn how to incorporate luminosity and light into their own work,subject matter, and style. it is necessary to have some experience in the medium of your choice. Instruction will focus on color mixing and seeing.  Fruitlands members $130, nonmembers $150. Registration required. E-mail education@fruitlands.org or call 978.456.3924 x239.