Autumn - On the Hudson River

1860

Jasper Francis Cropsey

Artist, American, 1823 - 1900

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.”

Media Options

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This monumental view of the Hudson River Valley was painted from memory in the artist's London studio. Cropsey adopted a high vantage point, looking southeast toward the distant Hudson River and the flank of Storm King Mountain. A small stream leads from the foreground, where three hunters and their dogs gaze into the sunlight. All along the meandering tributary there are signs of man's peaceful coexistence with nature: a small log cabin, grazing sheep, children playing on a bridge, and cows standing placidly in the water. Here, man neither conquers nor is subservient to nature; both coexist harmoniously. In fact, the landscape is depicted as a ready arena for further agricultural expansion. While autumnal scenes traditionally are associated with the transience of life, Cropsey's painting is more a celebration of American nationalism. As a critic wrote in 1860, the picture represents "not the solemn wasting away of the year, but its joyful crowning festival."

The painting created a sensation among many British viewers who had never seen such a colorful panorama of fall foliage. Indeed, because the autumn in Britain customarily is far less colorful than in the United States, the artist decided to display specimens of North American leaves alongside his painting to persuade skeptical visitors that his rendition was botanically accurate.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I, 118-122, which is available as a free PDF at https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/american-paintings-19th-century-part-1.pdf

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 64

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of the Avalon Foundation

  • Dimensions

    overall: 151.8 x 274.9 cm (59 3/4 x 108 1/4 in.)
    framed: 200.7 x 321.3 x 21 cm (79 x 126 1/2 x 8 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1963.9.1

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

Purchased from the artist 1862 by Thomas Slattery, London.[1] Arthur Jocelyn Charles, 6th Earl of Arran [1868-1958]; (Earl of Arran sale, Sotheby's, London, 11 July 1951, no. 150); "Duke"; private collection; (John Nicholson Gallery, New York), by November 1959; purchased 15 October 1963 by NGA.
[1] Cropsey was paid $2,000 by Slattery, the largest sum he had earned for a single work to that date; William S. Talbot, Jasper F. Cropsey, 1823-1900, New York, 1977: 416.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1860

  • Pall Mall, London, 1860, no cat.

1862

  • London Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, London, 1862, no. 2871.

1966

  • Art of the United States: 1670-1966, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1966, no. 57.

1968

  • Jasper F. Cropsey, 1823-1900: A Retrospective View of America's Painter of Autumn, University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, 1968, 26, 27, 30, 48, no. 19 (cat. by Peter Bermingham).

1969

  • In Memoriam, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1969, unnumbered checklist.

1970

  • Jasper F. Cropsey 1823-1900, The Cleveland Museum of Art; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica; National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C., 1970-1971, no. 35, color repro. 57 (cat. by William S. Talbot).

1985

  • Presidential Inaugural luncheon, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C., 21 January 1985.

1987

  • American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987-1988, 206-207, no cat. no. (entry by Carrie Rebora).

1988

  • Bilder aus der Neuen Welt: Amerikanische Malerei des 18. und 19. Jahrhundts., Orangerie des Schlosses Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany; Kunsthaus Zurich, Switzerland, 1988-1989, no. 19 (cat. by Thomas W. Gaehtgens).

1994

  • Jasper Francis Cropsey's 'The Spirit of War' and 'The Spirit of Peace', National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1994-1995, brochure, no.3, repro.

2000

  • Scenes from a Century Past--Reflections of the Spirit: Vibrant Forces for Rebirth as We Enter the New Millennium, Newington-Cropsey Foundation, Hastings-on-Hudson, 2000, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2002

  • American Sublime: Landscape Painting in the United States 1820-1880, Tate Britain, London; Museum of American Art of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2002, no. 27, repro.

Bibliography

1859

  • Cosmopolitan Art Journal (June 1859): 132.

1860

  • Home Journal (9 June 1860): 2.

  • The Crayon (May 1860): 124.

  • Boston Evening Transcript (18 May 1860): 2.

  • "Art Items." New York Daily Tribune. (12 May 1860).

  • Bennet, W.C. "Cropsey's 'Autumn on the Hudson' [sonnet]." (London) Art Journal (July 1860): 336.

1862

  • London Morning Post (6 May 1862).

  • London Times (7 April 1862).

1867

  • Tuckerman 1867, 536-537.

1879

  • Sheldon, George Williams. American Painters. New York, 1879: 83-84.

1947

  • Sears, Clara Endicott. Highlights among the Hudson River Artists. Boston, 1947: 173-174.

1968

  • Bermingham, Peter. Jasper F. Cropsey: A Retrospective View of America's Painter of Autumn. Exh. cat. University of Maryland, College Park, 1968: 26-27.

1970

  • Talbot, William S. Jasper F. Cropsey 1823-1900. Exh. cat. National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C., 1970: 33-37, 86-87.

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 48, repro.

1972

  • Howat, John K. The Hudson River and Its Painters. New York, 1972: 144, color repro. no. 25.

1974

  • Moore, James C. "The Storm and the Harvest: The Image of Nature in Mid-Nineteenth Century American Landscape Painting." Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1974: 49, 171-173.

1977

  • Talbot, William S. Jasper F. Cropsey, 1823-1900. New York, 1977: 154-159, 256-257, 415-417, 483-486.

1980

  • Talbot, William S. "Indian Summer by Jasper F. Cropsey." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 58 (1980): 153-155.

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 15, 96, repro.

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 140, repro.

1981

  • Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: color repro. 92-93, 116.

1986

  • Novak, Barbara. Nineteenth-Century American Painting. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. London, 1986: 13.

1988

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 18, 110, 182, repro.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 155, repro.

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 235, repro.

1993

  • Miller, Angela. The Empire of the Eye: Landscape Representation and American Cultural Politics, 1825-1875. Ithaca, New York, 1993: 160-161.

1996

  • Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 118-122, color repro.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 314-315, no. 255, color repro.

Inscriptions

lower center: Autumn, -on the Hudson River / J. F Cropsey / London 1860

Wikidata ID

Q20188414

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