Teaching East Asia: Korea Teaching East Asia: Korea | Page 182

Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School, started his career by travelling from village to village as
an itinerant portrait painter. In late 1825, he travelled to the Catskills, making sketches along the Hudson River.
He completed a series of paintings that were seen by prominent artists and he became famous instantly.
In The Oxbow (Fig.2), Cole created a masterpiece of American landscape painting. On an enormous canvas that
is slightly more than six feet wide, he created a contrast of moods with the approaching storm on the left and the
rest of the landscape bathed in sunshine. His composition includes a depiction of himself in the middle distance,
perched on a promontory above the Oxbow (a bend in the Connecticut River) and in communion with the
scenery. By juxtaposing the untamed wilderness and a pastoral settlement, Cole emphasizes the magnificence of
America’s landscapes. He creates an enduring visual record of a way of life that was threatened by the arrival of
civilization.
Fig. 4. The Grand Canyon of the
Yellowstone, Thomas Moran,
1872, Oil on canvas, 7’2” x 9’6”
National Collection of Fine Arts,
Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C.
Thomas Moran’s most famous
painting, the enormous The
Grand Canyon of the
Yellowstone, measures more
than 7 by 9 ½ feet and was
purchased by Congress for ten
thousand dollars. A mountain
in the Teton Range in Wyoming is named after him. His paintings were not only greater in size than those of the
Hudson River School, but also broader in panoramic sweep, and more spectacular in scenery. However, both
the landscapes of the Hudson River School and the West were created to be showpieces and awareness of the
spectacular beauty that exists in America. These landscapes were very popular and commanded the highest
prices throughout the second half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth.
Suggestions for the Lesson on Korean and American Landscape Painting
Note: In order to more fully appreciate the painting of Mt.Geumgang by Jeon Seon and The Oxbow by Thomas
Cole, enter the names of these paintings and the artists on the Internet, and then click on Images. Enlarge the
images to be able to see more of the details in each of the paintings.
For class discussion and possible writing assignments:
How do landscape paintings of East Asia differ from the West?
What philosophy has influenced landscape painting in East Asia?
Which paintings of the four selections do you prefer and why?
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