The fall colors along the wide Hudson River glimmered like a peacock's tail. The forest whirred by the train windows, flashing a gradient orange and yellow and green. What little human settlement subsists is nestled under the canopy or on the shoreline--brief outposts amidst a more dominant feature. Large boulders and cliffs line the rocky banks. The scene is so grand at times it seems an alpine lake more than an ambling river soon to freeze over.
Painters came to this valley in the early 19th century to capture a slice of its beauty. It embodied the potential, the inherent goodness of this land, and on their canvas they imbued this serenity with national visions of destiny that rested upon man's relation to bountious nature. They made portraits of the past, present, and future of our nation. Carrying the identity of the young country, the Hudson River School expanded beyond this river to show romantic, sometimes mythical vistas from across the hemisphere that inspire an awe unearthed only by our environment.
I find myself drawn to landscapes, especially of this kind. Ambling through the Smithsonian American Art Museum one winter day, I became engrossed by Albert Bierstadt's Among the Sierra Nevada, California. I was lost in its layers, its awaiting and inviting tranquility. The Hudson River movement had been adapted to the rugged features of the American West. It strikes me as a depiction of Eden; in Bierstadt's image, a placid, life-filled lake ringed by towering peaks and pines; in the image of stylistic peers, a deciduous forest or winding river or idyllic farm.
Beyond context and time, the feeling that emerges when presented with a beautiful scene of nature is retained in these works. There is a physical reaction in this moment, an upwelling of peace and harmony with the surroundings. In these busy days of ceaseless motion, my mind grasps for the creativity that blossoms in calmness. I sensed the energy those painters did nearly two centuries ago, the pure limitless force, in the Hudson River valley. It was invigorating. It is comforting to know something bigger exists out there.
