ROB EVANS
Drawing on the Susquehanna :
The Susquehanna and the First American School of Landscape Painting
Doughty, Cooper, Cole and a new American Landscape Movement
One of the most important and influential 19th century American landscape painters, Thomas Cole (1801-1848) is regarded as the founder of the "Hudson River School," however, Cole's early influences suggest that it was actually the Susquehanna River that played a vital role in initially shaping his artistic vision. From 1819 to 1823, as a young man, Cole traveled for several years along the Juniata River, a branch of the Susquehanna, and through the Allegheny Mountains. The beauty and wildness of the Juniata rivershed left an impression on him, and sketches he created on that journey formed the basis for an 1827 drawing and subsequent painting (now lost), painted from memory, which in turn provided the imagery for a widely disseminated engraving titled, "Head Waters of the Juniata, Allegheny Mountains, Pennsylvania."
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After Thomas Cole (1801 - 1848)
The Headwaters of the Juniata
red transferware ceramic soup plate produced by
William Adams and Sons, Staffordshire, England, c.1831 - 61
Drawing on the Susquehanna Collection
After Thomas Cole (1801 - 1848)
The Headwaters of the Juniata, Allegheny Mountains, Pennsylvania
From John Howard Hinton's "History and Topography of the United States"
Published and engraved byFenner Sears and Co.
steel plate engraving, 1831
Drawing on the Susquehanna Collection
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​​​Following this excursion, Thomas Cole arrived and settled in Philadelphia in 1823, and no doubt became aware of the landscape paintings of Thomas Doughty, a frequent contributor to the annual exhibitions at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the first American artist to devote himself exclusively to landscape painting. By this time Thomas Doughty was well respected for his pastoral views of the American landscape and is now considered one of the predecessors to the Hudson River School. Doughty was a frequent painter of the Susquehanna, eventually retiring along its banks in upper New York State, remarking, "How fortunate for a landscape painter to begin and end his days here." The younger Cole, who began exhibiting at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1824, was likely influenced by Doughty's descriptive Susquehanna scenes and expressed deep admiration for Doughty's work. But Cole eventually sought to push the landscape genre further, evolving into a more romanticized and sublime vision of the vanishing American wilderness.
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Thomas Doughty (1793 - 1856)
Valley of the Susquehanna
oil on canvas, c.1830s
Drawing on the Susquehanna Collection
After Thomas Doughty (1793 - 1856)
Banks of the Juniata
From "The Token"
engraving,1830
Drawing on the Susquehanna Collection
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In 1823, following the success of his second novel "The Spy," emerging American writer James Fenimore Cooper released his historical novel "The Pioneers, or Sources of the Susquehanna; a Descriptive Tale." Set in the lake country of upstate New York that forms the headwaters of the Susquehanna, it was the first of a series of five novels published which became known as the "Leatherstocking Tales" ("The Pioneers" is the fourth novel in terms of the chronology of the novel's plots). Considered to be the first true American novel, "The Pioneers" broke new ground as it debated the complex forces at work in the new American frontier, specifically addressing the battle between nature and civilization resulting from the gradual encroachment of settlement and development on the natural landscape.
According to the press of the day the publication of The Pioneers "excited a sensation among the artists, altogether unprecedented in the history of our domestic literature." Cooper's perspective on the vanishing American wilderness had a profound influence on his fellow artistic and literary peers, many of whom were members of the "Bread and Cheese Club," a group of intellectuals who met regularly in New York City to discuss ideas and promote the enhancement of America’s cultural independence. This circle included such artists as Thomas Cole, Asher Durand and Thomas Doughty, all of whom would subscribe to Cooper's romantic and nostalgic vision of the American wilderness, utilizing it to forge a new American landscape movement which would later be known as the Hudson River School. Thomas Doughty, deeply impacted by Copper's The Pioneers, painted two landscape images (now lost) based on the book which were exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1824 and likely seen by Cole. Cole was so impressed with Cooper's works that he completed several paintings based on Cooper's "Last of the Mohicans." Likewise, Cooper considered Cole to be "one of the very first geniuses of the age."
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While the Hudson River would eventually lend its name to the title of this new American landscape movement, it's interesting to note that its roots lie in Cooper's writings about the lake country that forms the source of the Susquehanna.
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James Fenimore Cooper (1789 - 1851)
The Pioneers, or Sources of the Susquehanna
First edition. Published by Charles Wiley, New York, 1823
Drawing on the Susquehanna Collection
Thomas Cole (1801 - 1848)
Landscape Scene from "Last of the Mohicans"
oil on canvas, 1827
collection of Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY
(not in exhibit)
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After Edwin Whitefield (1816 - 1892)
various plates from "Nature's Gems - American Wildflowers in Their Native Haunts" featuring the Susquehanna River and tributaries in the background,
all hand colored chromolithographs, 1845
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1. Wild Strawberry (Background - Distant view of Catawissa, PA)
2. Adder’s Tongue Violet (Background - View near Tioga Point, PA)
3. Wild Columbine (Background - Matanga Fall, PA)
4. The Wild Honeysuckle (Background - Fall on Buttermilk Creek, PA)
5. Early Asclepias (Background - Otsego Lake, NY)
6. Azure Star Flower (Background - View on the Susquehanna, near Nineveh)
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