Thomas Moran, Landscape Artist of the American West

Did you know Yellowstone was America’s first National Park? The watercolors of Thomas Moran helped convince Congress that the area surrounding the Yellowstone River was unique and needed protection. And in 1872 Congress passed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act, which President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law.

 Let’s Learn about Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone takes up 2.2 million acres in Wyoming, Montana, and eastern Utah. Millions visit to see grizzly bears, herds of bison and elk, wolves, and smaller creatures like beaver and river otters. The park has hot springs, mudpots, and over 500 geysers.

Minerva Terrace, Yellowstone, Thomas Moran, 1872, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., public domain

Reports of such phenomena reached the early explorers, Lewis and Clark, but they couldn’t investigate. Later, mountain men who trapped beaver in the Rockies, told of the wonders. But for many years people back east thought these were just tall tales.

Then in 1871 Thomas Moran borrowed money to travel west to join an expedition headed by F.V. Hayden to investigate the rumors. Moran’s watercolors and the photographs of William Henry Jackson provided pictorial documentation for the wonders of Yellowstone. These watercolors and photos were passed around Congress and helped lead to Yellowstone’s becoming America’s first national park.

Let’s Learn about the Artist

Moran photo by Napoleon Sarony, 1890-96, Library of congress, Washington, D.C.

Thomas Moran was born in 1837 near Manchester, England. His family were handloom weavers until the invention of power looms changed that industry. In 1844, to gain better opportunities for his children, Thomas’ father moved the family to America, settling near Philadelphia.

While still a teenager, Thomas apprenticed to an engraving firm. After 3 years he left to work in the art studio of his older brother, Edward, an up-and-coming marine artist. The brothers were drawn to the work of British artist J.M.W. Turner, and in 1861 traveled to England to study his paintings in the National Gallery. Moran’s art shows the influence of Turner’s coloring and style.

Sketches and watercolors made on the Yellowstone expedition brought Thomas many new commissions. His career really took off after he sold his huge (7X12 feet) oil painting, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, to Congress not long after they created the park. In 1873, Moran joined another expedition down the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon. A year later, Chasm of the Colorado, (also 7X12 feet) was also bought by Congress.

Grand Canyon of the Colorado River by Thomas Moran, Smithsonian American Art Museum, public domain

Moran continued to travel all his life. He visited Europe several more times. He further explored the Grand Canyon and other areas of the West. He especially loved the Green River area of Wyoming, and a painting from there is in the White House’s collection. He produced large numbers of etchings, watercolors, and oils right into his 80s. He died in California in 1926, but his influence on American landscape art lives on.

Let’s Learn about the Painting

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone by Thomas Moran, Smithsonian American Art Museum, public domain

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone that Congress bought is now in the Smithsonian, and I couldn’t find a good copy, but Moran made other paintings of the canyon, and this one gives you a good idea of his style. Moran was a 2^nd generation Hudson School artist, early landscape artist who desired to accurately show the beauty of nature and inspire viewers to see the hand of God in its grandeur.

Heart of the Andes by Frederick Edwin Church, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, public domain

Like earlier Hudson River artists, Moran depicted nature with great detail and accuracy.

But Moran differed from them in seldom showing the presence of man, or if he did show them, they are dwarfed by the landscape. You can also see the influence of Turner on Moran’s landscapes.

Norham Castle, Sunrise, by J.M.W. Turner, 1845, Tate, Britain, public domain

Turner used watercolor techniques with oil paints, using thin washes to create light and changing atmospheric conditions. In this painting Moran uses Turner’s techniques to make it look like the water fall is pulling clouds right down out of the sky.

Unlike Turner, Moran painted details clearly and with scientific accuracy.

Let’s Enjoy the Painting Together

Before telling children too much about the painting, ask them to tell what they think is going on in it and what tells them that.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone by Thomas Moran, Smithsonian American Art Museum, public domain

1.Then you might like to ask them these questions for further exploration:

• How do you think the explorers who first saw this place felt?
• Would you like to visit this place?
• What sounds would you hear if you visited here?
• What colors do you see in the painting?
• What are the lightest parts of the painting? The darkest?
• Do you think Moran had to do some climbing to paint this scene? (he did)

2.In landscapes, it’s fun to find the horizon and the three distances—foreground, middle ground, and background. How does the artist show these 3 sections?

3.Ask children to follow the river as it falls from the cliff and winks in and out between rocks as it flows into the foreground.

A Little Inspiration from God’s Word

Moran continued to travel the West painting its sights. When he saw a photo by his friend William Henry Jackson of this mountain in the Sawatch Range of what is now Colorado, he knew he had to paint it.

photo of the Mountain of the Holy Cross, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, public domain

The 14,011-foot Mountain of the Holy Cross is part of the Holy Cross Wilderness area near Vail, Colorado. Moran made a difficult climb to a neighboring mountain to paint the mountain. The mountain’s northeast face has deep crevices in the shape of a cross. When the mountain snows begin to melt, snow lasts longer in these crevices, making the cross very prominent.

Mountain of the Holy Cross by Thomas Moran, 1875, public domain

How amazing that this cross towers over scenes Moran painted that also show the wonder and majesty of our God.

Picture of Molly the Artsy Corgi

Ready for Spring

Before You Go

If you’d like more activity ideas for art, history, and nature, curriculum connections, and links to more resources, be sure to sign up for my newsletter and receive a free guide, 5 Ways Art Benefits Children’s Cognitive, Physical, Spiritual, and Social Development, You’ll also get a Few Fun and Easy Activities for each Benefit.

Visit Molly’s and my website where you’ll find free downloadable puzzles, how-to-draw pages and coloring pages for kids and an updated list of my hands-on workshops, chapels, and presentations for all ages.

 

 

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Lost and Found, The Icebergs by Frederick Edwin Church

How could The Icebergs, a 5-foot tall and 9-foot wide painting, be lost for nearly a hundred years?    In plain sight! That’s how.

Read on to:

• Find helpful vocabulary
• Learn a little about Frederick Edwin Church
• Learn the story of this once lost masterpiece
• See activities to help you and your children explore and enjoy The Icebergs
• A cute photo of Molly, the Artsy Corgi

Vocabulary

These words, which will be in bold green the first time they come up, will help you and your children talk more easily about different parts of a painting.

• landscape a painting of land, trees, etc. may have some people and buildings, but these aren’t the focus
• sketch a quick, non-detailed drawing or painting that artists use as studies for more finished works
• foreground, middle ground, background art words for the front, middle, and back parts of a painting.
• Horizon where the land or water meets the sky

The Artist

Frederick Edwin Church, (1826-1900) was one of the very few students of Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School of landscape artists. (check out other posts I’ve written about the Hudson River artists)

Like others in the group, Church first painted landscapes along the Hudson River and in other rural areas of New York and New England. In 1857 he hit fame with his 7-foot-wide painting of the Horseshoe Falls of Niagara. Water rushing away from the bottom edge of the painting (which was set at floor level) makes viewers like they’re about to tumble over the falls. Church exhibited Niagara by itself in a gallery in NYC and thousands paid 25 cents to sit in front of it and view the rainbow, mist, and foaming waters.

Church’s interest in science and exploration soon took him to South America to climb mountains and trudge through tropical rain forests,

Heart of the Andes by Frederick Edwin Church, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, public domain

to Italy and Greece to study ancient ruins, and to the Middle East to ride camels to reach the fabled city of Petra.

El Khasne, Petra by Frederick Edwin Church, Olana State Historical Site, public domain

From pencil and oil sketches in these places, he painted huge landscape masterpieces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For The Icebergs, Church chartered a small sailing ship for a month-long summer expedition to the waters off the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador. From the ship he used a rowboat to get closer to the icebergs so he could do pencil and oil sketches. The sailors thought he was crazy to go so close.

The Painting

The Icebergs by Frederick Edwin Church, Dallas Museum of Art, public domain

Church finished the final Icebergs painting and displayed it before crowds in NYC and Boston, just as he had Niagara. But the Civil War had just begun, and Church couldn’t find a buyer for the huge painting, so he sent it to be exhibited in London. After its successful exhibit, a businessman from Manchester, England bought The Icebergs and installed it in his country estate.

The estate was bought and sold many times over the years, eventually becoming the property of the City of Manchester. At different times the city used the house for a hospital and an orphanage. By 1978 it was a detention home for boys. Except for a short stay at a church that gave it back, The Icebergs remained with the property all those years, because no one knew its true worth. Though many art experts wondered what had happened to the painting, it hung dusty and forgotten, but in plain view, on a little-used stairway.

Then in 1978, the home’s administrator decided to sell the painting to raise a little money to buy some land. Suddenly the world rediscovered Church’s masterpiece. And it didn’t just raise a little money, it sold for 2.5 million dollars at auction (setting a record for American paintings) to an anonymous buyer who donated it to the Dallas Museum of Art, where it remains today, welcoming visitors to the American Art wing.

Activities to Help You and Your Children further Explore The Icebergs

Before doing any other activities, ask children to tell what’s going on in the painting and what tells them that. Enhance their observational and verbal skills by rephrasing words and adding new vocabulary.

• Help them notice how the foreground ice formation frames the iceberg in the middle ground.
• Point out how Church has highlighted that middle ground iceberg with sunlight.
• Encourage them to look way into the background at the distant horizon to see more icebergs.

Though we might expect a painting of icebergs to be mostly white, Church’s interest in science as well as his artistic training, helped him look carefully to see many colors reflected in the towering icebergs.

A friend of Church, who was a pastor, wrote this description of what he saw as he accompanied Church in the rowboat, “the steepled icebergs ,a vast metropolis in ice, pearly white and red as roses glittering in the sunset.” Pastor Louis Noble.

Go to this link to The Icebergs at the Dallas Art Museum and enlarge and scan around the painting,

• Encourage children to see the details. Have them call out or write down the colors they see.
• Older children might enjoy coming up with similes for the different colors and textures they see. For example, parts of the iceberg look like peaks of white frosting.

Before You Go

If you’d like more activity ideas for art, history, and nature, curriculum connections, and links to more resources, be sure to sign up for my newsletter and receive a free guide to 5 Ways Art Benefits Children’s Cognitive, Physical, Spiritual, and Social Development, with a Few Fun and Easy Activities for each Benefit

Visit my website where you’ll find free downloadable puzzles, how-to-draw pages and coloring pages for kids and an updated list of my hands-on workshops, chapels, and presentations for all ages. Add link

Pictures of Molly

Molly and I took some photos on a cold day here in Colorado a few days ago. It was so cold that frost and snow froze instantly on every surface! We hope you enjoy them

And we hope you enjoy this first post in a series about Frederick Edwin Church. Next week we’ll have a devotion based on the painting or Church’s life and work.

If you’re new to my blog, this is what you’ll usually find in each month-long series. One post will come each week, usually followed by a newsletter the last week:

Post 1 will engage your children’s minds in art appreciation activities. with background information about the artist and artwork with pictures and links for you.  Then I’ll give you some kid-friendly activities to help you and your children enjoy and appreciate the artwork.

Post 2 will engage your children’s hearts in a kid-friendly devotion based on the artwork.

Post 3 will engage children’s hands in an art activity based on the artwork. There are always suggestions to make the activities doable for a range of ages.

Post 4 may be related books to read or an interview with a children’s author. I include picture books as well as middle grade books.

In my end-of-month newsletter, you’ll find lots of ideas and links to help you make connections to other subjects related to the month’s artwork and artist. I hope this format will help you with games, lessons, and activities to engage your children’s minds, hearts, and hands in learning about and enjoying art.

Jean-Francois Millet, French Realist Painter of Ordinary People

Jean-Francoise Millet spent his youth doing the ordinary work of farming—plowing, sowing, cutting hay, and harvesting. Even when he later studied art and moved to Paris, he never forgot his roots, eventually leaving Paris to settle his family in a rural area. There Millet painted scenes of rural life, such as

The Angelus, by Jean-Francois Millet, Musee D’Orsay, public doma

The Angelus and The Sower, which are beloved paintings today.

The sower by Jean Francois Millet, public domain

 

 

 

 

 

 

The painting we’re going to look at isn’t as well-known as those, but I think you’ll love it and its spiritual emphasis, too!

The post includes:

• Getting to Know Jean-Francois Millet and the Realist art movement
• Looking at The Sheepfold, Moonlight, (includes helpful vocabulary)
• Choosing Activities to Help You and Your Children Further Explore the Painting
• Going Deeper to Discover What God Can Teach Us Through this Painting

Getting to Know Jean-Francois Millet, Realist painter

Jean Francois Millet, photo by Nadir, public domain

Born in 1814, the oldest son of a peasant family in rural Normandy, France, Millet spent his youth working on the family farm. When he was 19, he began studying with area artists, and in 1837 moved to Paris for further study.

Millet and several artist friends became more interested in painting landscapes and everyday life than portraits and historical events. They found inspiration in the landscapes of 17^th century Dutch artists, such as Jacob van Ruisdael,

View of Naarden by Jacob van Ruisdael, public domain

and the contemporary landscapes of English artist, John Constable

The Hay Wain by John Constable, public domain

(for more about John Constable, see this first of a series of my posts about him). https://kathythepicturelady.wordpress.com/2019/09/

These young French artists, working around the mid 1800s, became known as Realists, because they didn’t idealize the people and places they painted. The group is also sometimes called the Barbizon School, because many painted near Barbizon, a rural village on the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau, 30 miles southeast of Paris. (An artistic school isn’t a building, but a group of artists who often know each other, may paint together, and have similar artistic goals and/or styles)

The Realists were among the first to paint outside (en plein air). They loved nature and tried to observe and paint it accurately. Their work made landscapes an acceptable subject for art in France, inspiring and paving the way for the Impressionists at the end of the century. They also influenced later artists of America’s Hudson River School.

Autumn on the Hudson, Jasper Cropsey, public domain

(Look here for my first post in a series about one Hudson River School artist) https://kathythepicturelady.wordpress.com/2020/09/18/painting-the-light/

Many Realist artists painted near Barbizon just in the summer. But following violence in Paris in the 1840s and an outbreak of cholera, Millet moved his family to Barbizon, where he spent the rest of his life.

In his much-loved paintings, The Sower and The Angelus, we see how Millet understood the importance of farming and gave farm workers dignity and a heroic quality, once only used for great historical figures. Millet had a huge influence on the work of Vincent van Gogh.

Millet”s The Sower, 1850

The sower by Jean Francois Millet, public domain

Van Gogh’s Sower at Sunset, 1888

Sower at Sunset by Vincent van Gogh, public domain

 

Looking at The Sheepfold, Moonlight by Jean-Francois Millet

The Sheepfold, Moonlight by Jean-Francois Millet, public domain

In this nocturnal, scene we see a shepherd directing his sheep into a pen on a wide plain near the village of Barbizon. Our vantage point is up close, just in front of the sheep. Millet typically paints his main characters up close and large.

Go here to the painting at the Walters Art Museum to look at an enlarged picture. https://art.thewalters.org/detail/24760/the-sheepfold-moonlight-2/

Beyond the shepherd and sheep in the foreground, the plain stretches away to the horizon. There’s no middle ground, and a good half of this painting is sky. Showing so much sky emphasizes the large plain and highlights the brilliant moon and its light effects. Notice that the sky is blue, not black as it might be later in the night.

It’s the end of the day. Twilight deepens, the moon rises over the plain, and the shepherd brings his flock home for the night. Much of the painting is in shadow, but see how the moonlight shines on the underside of the clouds and the backs of the sheep.

Also notice how the shepherd and his staff are silhouetted against the sky as he holds the gate open for the sheep to enter. Two dogs are next to him to help funnel the sheep into the pen.

Helpful Vocabulary

• Realist—true to what is seen
• Nocturnal—night time scene
• Vantage point—where the viewer would be standing in the painting
• Foreground—front of a painting
• Middle ground—the middle of a painting
• Horizon—where the land or sea and the sky meet
• Silhouette—when a figure shows in dark outline against a lighter background

Choosing Activities to Help You and Your Children Further Explore the Painting

Before doing any other activities, ask children to tell what’s going on in the painting and what tells them that.

1. This is a great painting to talk about mood and how an artist creates that.
2. What is the mood of this painting? Do all those shadows make it mysterious? A little scary? Are there colors, shapes, lines, etc. that make you think that?
3. If this were the opening scene of a movie, what do you think might happen next?
4. What music might you hear during this opening scene?

You may also enhance children’s observational and verbal skills, as well as their imaginations with the following questions:

1. What things tell you that the sheep are entering the pen, not leaving?
2. How does a shepherd’s dogs help him?
3. Why would the shepherd keep the sheep in a pen for the night?
4. If we were in the painting, where would we be standing?
5. What sounds might we hear?
6. What colors do you see in the sky?
7. What things are in shadow?
8. Which things are lit by moonlight?
9. Do the sheep look tired?

Going Deeper to Discover What God Can Teach Us through the Painting

This painting can help you explore with children an important way the Bible often talks about the relationship between God and us, and his loving and wise care of us. Psalm 23 says,” the Lord is my Shepherd,” and Psalm 100 says, “we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.”

Now let’s look again at The Sheepfold, Moonlight painting. It’s the end of a long day. The sheep look tired, and the sky is dark. Clouds may tell of a coming storm. Thick shadows surround the sheep pen.

The Sheepfold, Moonlight by Jean-Francois Millet, public domain

1. Do you think the sheep would be afraid of those shadows?
2. What dangers may lurk in the nighttime shadows surrounding the sheep? (wolves, thieves, rocky cliffs, scary storms with thunder and lightning could scatter the sheep and hurt them)
3. Do you sometimes get frightened at night?
4. What are some things that make you afraid?

Now look at who is silhouetted against the sky. It’s the shepherd with his staff. In Psalm 23:4 David says, “I will fear no evil for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

The shepherd is taking care of his sheep. He has led them home for the night and is guiding them into the safety of a pen that will hug around them—it’s called a sheepfold.

See how the shepherd is holding the gate open for the sheep to go in. He opens the gate, so the sheep can enter the safety of the pen. In John 10 Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate of the sheep . . . I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved” (John 10:8,9).

During the night, the shepherd will sleep across the gateway to protect his sheep from danger, and will even give his life for his sheep. “The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).

We are like those sheep—sometimes we become frightened of dangers that could hurt us. But Jesus is our Good Shepherd. He loves us and he gave his life, so we could become part of his flock. We can rest, knowing he will watch over us and never leave us, keeping us safe in his very own sheepfold.

Let’s thank Jesus for being our loving and wise Good Shepherd!

Prayer  Thank you, Jesus, that when we run to you, you will guide us and open the gate for us to enter your sheepfold. There we will be part of your flock and be safe forever. In your name, we pray. Amen.

(All verses are from the New International Version of the Bible)

Molly and I hope you’ll come back for our next post of a cute art project about sheep!

But Before You Go:

If you’d like more activity ideas for art, history, and nature, curriculum connections, and links to more resources, be sure to click the button to sign up for my newsletter., and receive a free guide to making art museum visits a fun masterpiece for your whole family!

Visit my all-new website to get free downloadable puzzles, how-to-draw pages and coloring pages for kids and see an updated list of my hands-on workshops, chapels, and presentations for all ages. http://www.kathy-oneill.com/

 

 

Painting the Light

Artists of the Hudson River School, America’s first home-grown art movement, flooded their panoramic landscapes with light.

This first in a series of 4 posts will give you:

1. Background information about the Hudson River School of art and Jasper Cropsey, a member of that group
2. A lesson plan that includes

•      Materials and vocabulary lists,
•      One principle of art or design to learn about
•      A fun activity and story to introduce Jasper Cropsey to your children
•      A kid-friendly game to help your children explore one of Cropsey’s paintings

Now let’s get right to the first in the series of 4 posts based on art by Jasper Francis Cropsey.

Background for You.   

The Hudson River School artists were a group of artists whose lives and work stretched across most of the 1800s. They knew and learned from each other, sometimes painted together in the same areas, and often exhibited together.

It all began with a sketching trip Thomas Cole, who is considered the founder of the school, took up the Hudson River in 1825. The Hudson River flows south from the Adirondacks, through scenic landscapes, such as the Catskill Mountains, to empty into the Atlantic in New York City.

Following his lead, more and more artists took sketching and painting trips north on the Hudson. Many of them had grown up in New York or New England, while others were immigrants. A few were women, and one was an African American man.

These artists also explored rivers and mountains throughout the northeastern part of the United States, which was still largely rural. They encouraged each other to make careful observations of nature and detailed sketches of what they saw. (Here’s a link to see images from one of Jasper Cropsey’s sketch books at the University of Michigan’s Bentley Historical Library)

Eventually some traveled even farther. Frederick Church painted in the Middle East, South America, and the Arctic. Albert Bierstadt (who had immigrated with his family from Germany) traveled with exploratory expeditions to the American West. His paintings helped make the West better known back East.

Look at this painting called Autumn—On the Hudson River by Jasper Cropsey to see many of the features of Hudson River School paintings

Autumn on the Hudson, Jasper Cropsey, public domain

 

(here’s the link to this painting in the National Gallery in Washington D.C., which enables you to enlarge the painting and scroll around to see its details)  https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.46474.html

• Wide, panoramic views of a river, distant mountains, and lots of light-filled sky, usually from an elevated position.
• The river or a winding path invites you to “walk” into the painting
• Lots of realistic details of plants, rocks, and trees, rural life
• Light used to reveal the form of things, unlike the Impressionists, who used light to dissolve outlines
• Often show a few people or animals, hiking, resting, or working in fields
• Sometimes the artist shows him or herself painting in the foreground

Above all else you’ll see light and 1 point perspective used to draw you on into the mountains and beyond. (when we see look at a road or wall receding into the distance, we see an illusion of the parallel lines receding at an angle and coming together at “one point” on the horizon. Artists use this 1 point illusion or perspective to help create the illusion of distance in a painting).

In a Hudson River School painting all the lines converge at a point that is lost in light, so it seems as if we can see beyond nature to infinity—to God who created all that beautiful nature. And that’s just what these artists wanted.

Lesson Plan:  Engaging your children’s minds to explore and enjoy this painting!

Materials: 

• link from above to this painting in the National Gallery so you can scroll around to see details
• links in this post to maps of Hudson River and photos of the actual places painted
• colored leaves gathered on walk or photos of these
• Optional, but fun! Make a “magic” paintbrush pointer—add a little glue and glitter to the handle of a paintbrush—when you sprinkle a little “magic” artist glitter on children, it becomes fun to imagine walking into the painting or pointing out objects with the brush.

Vocabulary The words will be in bold green the first time they come up.

• autumn
• landscape painting
• sketching
• foreground, middleground, background (big words, but ones that will help you and your children talk more easily about different parts of a painting)

One principle of art or design to learn about:  Color can help create a mood by using warm and/or cool colors

Introduction: An activity and a story

Activity: If possible go on a walk and let children gather colorful fall leaves. If that’s not possible, look at a few photos of bright fall leaves. Ask questions such as: Which colors do they like best? Did they find any leaves that still showed some green? Are there any patterns formed by the changing colors? What do those veins do?

photo from a previous post’s leaf painting activity, showing the leaf veins

Isn’t it wonderful that God has given us such beauty before winter?

Story: There was once an American artist who loved colorful fall leaves so much that he took lots of sketching and painting trips along the Hudson River and in New England in the autumn to paint the bright red, orange, and yellow leaves. But when he showed some of his autumn landscape paintings in London, the British were amazed. Their fall leaves weren’t that colorful, and some thought he had exaggerated the colors in his paintings. So the artist, Jasper Cropsey, attached samples of leaves to his paintings to prove his colors were right on!

Teaching and Sharing: Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823-1900) was part of a group of American artists who lived not long after the American Revolution when America was still a small country with few cities. They loved to hike along the Hudson River in New York State and in other northeast states, sketching nature and painting landscapes. (The link to the map of the Hudson River is helpful here)  https://www.hudsonrivervalley.org/hudson-river-valley-map

Let’s look at one of Jasper Cropsey’s autumn paintings together.

Ask children what’s going on in the painting and what tells them that.    (Giving children time to look at and talk about the overall painting before using a game to get more specific improves cognitive and social skills)

A fun game to explore the painting and enhance children’s observational skills:  Tap a child lightly on the shoulder with the “magic” paintbrush and invite him or her to pretend they are walking through the painting. Encourage their imaginations even more by first asking if it’ll be cold or hot, rainy, or sunny, etc. and therefore, what clothes they should wear and what they might take with them on their walk. Will they need a snack or water?

Ask them to tell what they see, hear, smell, and touch as they travel from the foreground, through the middle ground, to the background. Encourage them to find the men and dogs sitting on the hill, the man on horseback, the town along the river, the children playing on a bridge, trees with red leaves, blown over trees, a paddlewheel boat on the river, and to see colors and patterns.

With landscapes, it can be fun to compare the artist’s work to actual photographs. Here are links to 2 photos taken of that mountain seen in the distance across the Hudson River in Cropsey’s painting. Called Butter Mountain by early Dutch settlers because they thought it looked like a lump of butter, today it’s called Storm King Mountain. It helps form the northern entrance to the Hudson Highlands, a narrow section of the Hudson River. West Point Military Academy is on a bluff just south of this section of the river.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Highlands#/media/File:Hudson_Highlands.JPG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_King_Mountain_(New_York)#/media/File:Storm_King_mountain_as_viewed_from_top_of_Break_Neck_Ridge.JPG

One principle of art or design to learn about:  Color can help create a mood.

• Ask children which colors Cropsey has used. They’ll see he has used both—warm colors for the foliage and cool colors in the sky and river.
• Explain that while Cropsey has painted his landscape with realistic colors, he’s also creating a mood with his color choices. Often warm colors, (reds, oranges, and yellows) can make a painting exciting. Cool colors (blues, greens, and violets) can give a feeling of peace.
• Ask children how the painting makes them feel.
• Help them notice that Cropsey’s reds and oranges  and his blues and greens, too, are a little muted by distance.
• And one color seems to warm up every part of this landscape.  Which one is it? (that golden sunlight gives an overall mood to this painting of a warm welcome to a peaceful country scene)

Whichever of the above activities you choose, enhance children’s verbal skills by rephrasing words and helping them use the new vocabulary. Encourage their observation skills by pointing out nuances of color such as the different blues and greens of various parts of the sky, water, and land.

 

 

Molly and I hope you and your children will enjoy learning about the Hudson River School artists and exploring Jasper Cropsey’s painting, Autumn–On the Hudson River!

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I’ll post Connections to Other Subjects very soon! As I was listing them, I realized this post would be too long if I included them now. But sign up to receive these posts by email so you don’t miss them! There are many great connections to social studies, science, and language arts from this painting!