For Tuesday, January 31, please read Richard H. Gassan, “The Revolution of Seeing: Tourism & the Founding of the Hudson River School,” available on Electronic Course Reserve. Since the chapter itself does not include illustrations, I would call your attention to websites that show examples of William Guy Wall’s Hudson River Portfolio paintings in the picturesque tradition and Thomas Cole’s depictions of the sublime, especially Falls of the Kaaterskill (1826). What differences in the styles of each artist can you see? How does Gassan argue that each connects to early tourism?
In class we will discuss the reading and view some examples of the art that shaped early 19th-century Americans’ conception of the natural environment of the United States. I will also spend a portion of class lecturing on the role of art and literature in shaping tourism patterns in the northeastern United States in the early national period.
