Alfred Thompson Bricher (1837���1908), Seascape
Oil on canvas
17 1/8 x 36 1/8 inches
Not far from the Hudson River Thomas Cole made his way
along ancient Native American paths, crossing streams,
scrambling across massive ice age rocks, occasionally
glimpsing the river below as he sought the perfect location.
In the foreword to The Hudson River and its Painters, author and preservationist Carl Kramer writes that when Cole,
���found a scene that moved him, the young painter let his
flute speak for him and, once it had spoken, began to imitate
with his brushes and colors that part of the divine creator���s
universe he had chosen for a painting.���
Although America was rapidly developing, Cole and a small
group comprised the new republic���s artistic lights at the beginning of the nineteenth century. They and the two or three
generations that followed would come to be known as the
Hudson River School.. Although they emanated from AngloAmerican artistic traditions, many of their number would latHYLAND
