View on the Hudson in Autumn

1850

Thomas Doughty

Painter, American, 1791 - 1856

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Artwork overview

More About this Artwork

We look out onto a sweeping, panoramic view with trees, their leaves fiery orange and red, framing a view of a distant body of water under a sun-streaked sky in this long, horizontal landscape painting. The horizon comes about halfway up the composition, and is lined with hazy mountains and clouds in the deep distance. Close examination slowly reveals minuscule birds tucked into the crimson-red, golden yellow, and deep, sage-green leaves of the trees to either side of the painting. Closest to us, vine-covered, fallen tree trunks and mossy gray boulders line the bottom edge of the canvas. Beyond a trickling waterfall and small pool near the lower left corner, and tiny within the scale of the landscape, a group of three men and their dogs sit and recline around a blanket and a picnic basket, their rifles leaning against a tree nearby. The land sweeps down to a grassy meadow crossed by a meandering stream that winds into the distance, at the center of the painting. Touches of white and gray represent a flock of grazing sheep in the meadow. A low wooden bridge spans the stream to our right, and a few cows drink from the riverbank. Smoke rises from chimneys in a town lining the riverbank and shoreline beyond, and tiny white sails and steamboats dot the waterway. Light pours onto the scene with rays like a starburst from behind a lavender-gray cloud covering the sun, low in the sky. The artist signed the painting as if he had inscribed the flat top of a rock at the lower center of the landscape with his name, the title of the painting, and date: “Autumn – on the Hudson River, J.F Cropsey, London 1860.”

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Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Commissioned from the artist by William Wilson Corcoran [1798-1888], Washington;[1] gift 1869 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art.
[1] The Corcoran accession card (in NGA curatorial files) notes that the work was "painted for Mr. Corcoran's private collection."

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1874

  • A Tribute to W. W. Corcoran of Washington City, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1874, no. 91, as Autumn on the Hudson.

1950

  • Paintings of the Hudson River, Century Association, New York, 1950, unpublished checklist, as Autumn on the Hudson.

1966

  • Past and Present: 250 Years of American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, unpublished checklist, as Autumn on the Hudson.

1971

  • Loan for display at the U.S. Embassy, Moscow, 1971-1973.

1973

  • Thomas Doughty, 1793-1856: An American Pioneer in Landscape Painting, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Albany institute of History and Art, 1973-1974, no. 49, as Autumn on the Hudson.

1976

  • Corcoran [The American Genius], Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1976, no checklist, as Autumn on the Hudson.

1978

  • Michigan Artrain tour, March-June 1978.

1979

  • Romantic America: The Middle Decades of the 19th Century, Tampa Museum of Art, 15 September - 26 November 1979, no. 39, repro., as Autumn on the Hudson.

2009

  • Lives of the Hudson, Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs,18 July 2009 - 14 March 2010, unnumbered catalogue.

2013

  • American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013 - 28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.

Bibliography

1857

  • Lanman, Charles. Catalogue of W.W. Corcoran's Gallery. Washington, 1857: 10, no. 24.

1966

  • Phillips, Dorothy W. A Catalogue of the Collection of American Paintings in The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Vol. 1: Painters born before 1850. Washington, 1966: 55-56, repro.

2011

  • Kelly, Franklin. "Thomas Doughty, View on the Hudson in Autumn." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 20, 94-95, 261, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q46628118

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