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LITR 4328 American
Renaissance Research Posts 2015 (research post assignment) Research Post 1 |
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Jennifer Robles
Parallelity
between Art and Literature in Romanticism
Literature is much bigger that just books and poems—it is
pure artistry.
Authors use their carefully selected words to
invoke emotions deep within our psyche.
The American Renaissance in literature coincided
with Romantic ideals such as nature, the sublime, gothic and transcendentalism.
Because these themes were so prevalent in
Romanticism, I wondered if other forms of art had their own styles they were
influenced by as well- primarily visual art like paintings.
Was it possible that the painters of America’s
Romantic period held the same ideals as their literary counterparts and their
artwork would be able to convey the exact messages?
My fascination with the artwork of the American
Renaissance started with the class’s online course link on the Hudson River
School.
There are quite a few examples of the artwork found at the
school.
The art itself displays close ties to the overall themes
of Romanticism.
The Hudson River school began with the New York
arrival of Thomas Cole in 1825, roughly the same time as the start of the
American Renaissance.
Upon his arrival, he traveled to the Catskills,
where he made various sketches and drawings along the Hudson River. Cole was
able to produce magnificent landscapes that invoked the sublime, a concept that
“no other American painter had so far attempted” (visual-arts-cork.com).
Cole’s impressions of a vast and wild nature had
never really been thought of in such a way and it came in direct parallel to
literature’s themes of nature and the sublime.
As Cole’s talent came to light, he became a part of a much
wider group of influential artists and authors.
William Cullen Bryant befriended Thomas Cole and
wrote a sonnet about him.
The poem titled
Sonnet—o an American Painter Departing
for Europe, beautifully demonstrates the parallels of literature and art in
a Romantic style.
Cole’s artwork depicted nature as vast and people
as tiny objects in the sublimity of it all.
Bryant states it perfectly in his sonnet to Cole
“To where life shrinks from the fierce Alpine air. Gaze on them, till the tears
shall dim thy sight.”
This sonnet is perfectly visualized in Asher B.
Durand’s painting Kindred Spirits, which depicts the friendship between Cole and
Bryant.
These two people, author and artist, are seen together as
seeing the world the same.
Interestingly, the Hudson River School did not begin as an
actual school but rather an artistic movement influenced by Thomas Cole, who
himself, was influenced by Romantic ideals.
Cole marked the first generation of the group of
artists who all shared in this need to share the American landscape as
larger-than-life.
I would definitely say that these artists were
influenced by the same themes of nature and the sublime, but I found it
difficult to report on my findings as art is visual.
Because art is meant to be seen, it is much more
credible to identify these themes when the artwork is presented, rather than
just saying it is there.
Through research I was able to find that the Hudson
River School was founded on Romantic ideas but I would love to see artwork that
depicts much more than just the sublime and nature.
Perhaps the second generation of the Hudson River
School delves into deeper Romanticism.
Sources Cited
"Historical Sources for Craig White's Literature Courses."
Historical Sources for Craig White's
Literature Courses. Web. 17 Mar. 2015. <http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/xhist/HudsonRSch.htm>.
"Hudson River School (c.1825-75)."
Hudson River School of Romantic Landscape
Painting. Web. 16 Mar. 2015. <http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/hudson-river-school-landscape-painting.htm>.
"Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History."
The Hudson River School. Web. 16 Mar.
2015. <http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hurs/hd_hurs.htm>.
"Sonnet to an American Painter Departing for Europe."
Sonnet to an American Painter Departing
for Europe. Web. 17 Mar. 2015. <http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Bryant/sonnettocole.html>.
"Kindred Spirits by Asher B. Durand."
Kindred Spirits by Asher B. Durand.
Web. 17 Mar. 2015. <http://www.catskillarchive.com/cole/wcb-1.htm>.
PBS.
PBS. Web. 16 Mar. 2015. <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/icon/hudson.html>.
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