ìDefining ëAmericannessí (Part 2)î themes, terms, concepts, artists

• Hudson River School

• Edward Hicks

  • Peaceable Kingdom

• Transcendentalism & Romanticism

  • Reformist, idealistic, humanitarian, abolitionist, highly literary.
  • moral enthusiasm; faith in the individual and intuitive perception; rejected rationalism
  • presumed goodness of natural world over corruption of human-made society
  • ìtranscendentî truths beyond human reason and senses, guided by intuition.
  • Importance of imagination over reason: mystical, individual, democratic.
  • In art, asymmetry over symmetry; inspiration from ruins; gothicism over neoclassicism.

• ìLuministsî: Church & etc.

  • ìcomposite ìcosmicî landscapes
  • Niagara

Previous slide

Back to first slide

View graphic version