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Celebrate Fall Foliage with Autumn Art at the National Gallery

3 min read
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.”
Jasper Francis Cropsey, Autumn - On the Hudson River, 1860, oil on canvas, Gift of the Avalon Foundation, 1963.9.1

Bask in the glow of the afternoon sun radiating from the center of this painting. Let your eyes travel to its colors: green, gold, and the fiery blaze of leaves turning red.

In Autumn – On the Hudson River, Jasper Francis Cropsey captures the splendor of North American fall. This monumental work stands 5 feet tall and stretches 9 feet across. To make it, Cropsey carefully observed the trees on the banks of the Hudson River. He painted them so faithfully that individual species can be identified: elm, birch, red oak, maple, American chestnut, and the evergreen hemlock and pine trees.

But when he first exhibited this work across the Atlantic in London in 1860, British audiences were skeptical that such brilliant foliage could be real. Leaves in the UK and Europe turn mostly yellow in fall, while those in North America favor towards red and orange. In response, Cropsey mounted American autumn leaves next to the painting as proof.

Detailed closeup of leaves on the right side of Cropsey's Autumn – On the Hudson

No matter where you are in the world or what seasons you’re passing through, take this scene as an invitation to pause and notice changes in the natural world around you. And if there isn't currently a riot of color or brisk fall breeze where you live, spend some time with our autumnal images.
 

  • A woman with smooth, pale skin and wearing a hat, long dress, and gloves, stands holding a bunch of pumpkin-orange leaves against a background of trees painted with touches of rust orange and pine green in this vertical painting. The woman tips her head back slightly to look at us with dark eyes under arched eyebrows. Her cheeks are flushed and her coral-pink lips closed. Her round black hat perches on the back of her head and she has an inky black, long-sleeved, hip-length jacket with bronze trim at the shoulders, cuffs, and down the front. A gauzy bow is tied at her neck. Her left elbow, on our right, is bent and she holds up her tan-colored, ruffled skirt with a white-gloved hand. The raised skirt exposes sky-blue lining and white, ruffled flounces at her feet. Her right arm, on our left, hangs at her side and holds the handle of a basket. Deep marigold-orange leaves cascade out of the basket. One black shoe peeks out from under her long skirt. She stands on a hill carpeted with crimson-red, tawny-brown, golden yellow, and forest-green leaves. The space behind her is filled with touches and dabs of red, orange, brown, black, and tan.
  • A dirt path winds through a dense forest with leaves that glow gold around silvery-gray boulders in this vertical landscape painting. Close to us, the boulders are partially covered with moss and growth in shades of green and russet red. Sunlight from the upper right catches a sapling crowned with flame-red leaves that angles in from the lower right corner of the painting. Beyond it leafy yellow-green shrubs crowd beside two more putty-gray boulders. The path recedes just left of center and is lined by trees covered with rough bark. The path ends at a fiery copper glow in the distance. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower right corner: “WM. T. Richards Phil. 1863.”
  • Thickly painted, rectangular vertical and horizontal slabs in intense buttercup and mango yellow, shamrock and lime green, burnt orange, raspberry pink, and charcoal gray are layered in this nearly square, abstract composition. In the top half, shapes are smaller, closer together, and separated by strokes of moss green. In the bottom half, the shapes are larger and seem to float against a vivid orange background. Smaller swipes and dabs of cotton candy pink, plum purple, indigo blue, sea glass green, scarlet red, rust brown, and bright white are interspersed around the slabs. The artist signed and dated the painting in green paint in the lower right corner, “hans hofmann 57.”

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