From the Schuylkill to the Hudson: Landscapes of the Early American Republic

Exhibition Info
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Fisher Brooks Gallery
Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building
Curated by
Anna O. Marley, Curator of Historical American Art
Discover how Philadelphia's painters influenced the artists of the legendary Hudson River School.

From the Schuylkill to the Hudson: Landscapes of the Early American Republic will delve into the important and underexplored tradition of landscape representation in Philadelphia from the Early American Republic to the Centennial Exhibition (1876) and how that corpus shaped the better-known Hudson River School. Philadelphia's key role in the growth of American landscape painting has never been the subject of a major museum exhibition. PAFA's exhibition, along with the accompanying catalog, will illuminate the growth of the genre from its roots, through its rise into the public consciousness. 

Thomas Cole, who is widely regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, began his career as a landscape painter after living and training in Philadelphia. During the time he spent in the city in the 1820s, he was influenced by the work of Thomas Doughty and Thomas Birch, whose American landscapes were on view at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Doughty and Birch were only two of many landscape painters living and exhibiting their work in Philadelphia at the time, including Charles Willson Peale, James Peale, William Russell Birch, John Lewis Krimmel, Joshua Shaw, Jacob Eichholtz, and Russell Smith. From the Schuylkill to the Hudson will place special emphasis on representations of local waterways in order to showcase the manner in which these Philadelphia water views, whether of the Schuylkill, the Wissahickon, or Delaware, constituted some of the earliest and most influential sites within American visual culture.

In addition to exhibiting fine art paintings and prints, From the Schuylkill to the Hudson: Landscapes of the Early American Republic will share with visitors the broader story of landscape representation in Philadelphia by including decorative ceramics produced both locally and globally. A highlight of the exhibition will be a group of major Hudson River School paintings acquired by PAFA over the last 10 years, including works by Cole, Albert Bierstadt, David Johnson, Frederic Church, and Thomas Moran.

The works in the exhibition will be drawn primarily from PAFA's superlative permanent collection—along with select public and private local collections—underlining the key role Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Academy itself played in the development of landscape painting in America. The accompanying catalog will include reproductions of works from the show, an essay on landscape painting and decorative arts by Anna O. Marley, and an essay on reproductive landscapes by Ramey Mize. 

From the Museum Store

schuylkill to husdon catalog cover

This exhibition catalog features essays by PAFA's curator of Historical of American Art, Dr. Anna O. Marley, and Ramey Mize, with a foreword by Brooke Davis Anderson (Edna S. Tuttleman Director of the Museum).

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Exhibition Support

From the Schuylkill to the Hudson: Landscapes of the Early American Republic is made possible by the Henry Luce Foundation. Major support is provided by the Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts, Inc. Leadership support is provided by Julie and James Alexandre and Bowman Properties, Ltd. Generous support is provided by Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., Louisa C. Duemling, the Newington-Cropsey Foundation, Dorothy and Ken Woodcock and The IFPDA Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Foundation for Landscape Studies and Furthermore Program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund.

Historic Exhibitions are generously supported by The Templeton Family.

Special Exhibitions are generously supported by Emily and Mike Cavanagh, Jonathan L. Cohen, Ro and Martin King, Robert E. Kohler and Frances Coulborn Kohler, Maggie and Brien Murphy, and Dorothy and Ken Woodcock. Additional support is provided the PAFA Annual Exhibition Fund.

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News and Press

Philadelphia Citizen | PAFA Event Celebrates Local Indigenous Culture Missing From Art

PAFA’s new landscapes exhibit is the jumping-off point for this weekend’s celebration of the people missing from those paintings: Local Native Americans.

Image: Tailinh Agoyo via The Warrior Project

 

Landscapes Are Not Neutral, but Rather Perspectives of Power

The waterways depicted in "From the Schuylkill to the Hudson: Landscapes of the Early American Republic" are most well-known by their current Euro-American names, but are situated in the homelands of the Lenape people. “Some visitors to PAFA may have heard of the contemporary 'museums are not neutral' social justice movement. Well, landscapes are certainly not neutral either,” said Dr. Anna O. Marley, PAFA’s Curator of Historical American Art.

Preserving the Past

With works dating back to the 1790’s, time was not on the side of conservator Mary McGinn when she began preparing for PAFA’s current exhibition, From the Schuylkill to the Hudson: Landscapes of the Early American Republic.

Washington Post | PAFA Makes the Case for a Schuylkill River School

From the Schuylkill to the Hudson: Landscapes of the Early American Republic comes with a provocative and fascinating thesis: that there was indeed a Schuylkill River School, centered in Philadelphia, exploring themes and ideas that would be taken up by far more famous figures, including Thomas Cole in the 1830s and Albert Bierstadt and Frederic Edwin Church a generation later. But the exhibition also focuses on rivers in general, and their essential importance to American life, first as sources of water and means of transportation, later as political boundaries and dividing lines, and

Showcasing Philadelphia’s Place in the History of American Landscapes

Who came first—Philadelphia or New York? In "From the Schuylkill to the Hudson: Landscapes of the Early American Republic," PAFA explores an untold version of American art history.

Celebrating Philadelphia's Water Technology Through Art

On view this summer at PAFA, "From the Schuylkill to the Hudson: Landscapes of the Early American Republic" is as much an exploration of how Philadelphia influenced the Hudson River School painters as it is a celebration of Philadelphia’s roots as a modern city and its place on the world stage in the 19th century. The city was a pioneer for clean water for large cities and used art to promote the importance of clean water locally and around the world.

Before the Hudson River School There Was the Schuylkill

Though many learn that American landscape painting begins with the Hudson River School, looking back a little further reveals that Philadelphia—and PAFA—is at the heart of this tradition. Coming to PAFA this June, "From the Schuylkill to the Hudson: Landscapes of the Early American Republic," tells the story of landscapes before the Hudson River School.

PAFA Presents the Untold Story of Philadelphia’s Leadership Role in the Story of American Landscape Painting

PAFA is pleased to present "From the Schuylkill to the Hudson: Landscapes of the Early American Republic," on view June 28 through December 29, 2019. Philadelphia's key role in the growth of American landscape painting has never been the subject of a major museum exhibition before. Delving into the important and underexplored tradition of landscape painting in Philadelphia, this exhibition shows how that tradition shaped the better-known New York's Hudson River School.
Related Events
Member Program

Member Preview Mornings | From the Schuylkill to the Hudson

See the exhibition free and first with Brooke Davis Anderson, Edna S. Tuttleman Director of the Museum, and Dr. Anna Marley, Curator of Historical American Art, as your guides.
Member Program

Member Preview Mornings | From the Schuylkill to the Hudson

See the exhibition free and first with Brooke Davis Anderson, Edna S. Tuttleman Director of the Museum, and Dr. Anna Marley, Curator of Historical American Art, as your guides.
Special Tours

Learning to Look

Join Curator of Historical American Art, Dr. Anna O. Marley, Dr. Laura Turner Igoe from the James A. Michener Art Museum, and Dr. Franklin Kelly from the National Gallery of Art for an up-close and personal experience with some of the masterpieces in "From the Schuylkill to the Hudson."
Member Program

Curator Conversation: From the Schuylkill to the Hudson

Learn behind-the-scenes details about From the Schuylkill to the Hudson from the show’s curator Dr. Anna O. Marley and PAFA professor Doug Martenson.

Transfer What? Transferware: A Hands-On Workshop

Transfer printing was the medium of choice during the 19th century and artists used the print technique to decorate plates, bowls, teapots, and vases in order to spread imagery and patterns around the globe.

Learn more about this popular technique with a gallery walkthrough of transferware currently on view with Curator of Historical American Art, Dr. Anna O. Marley and Curator of Artistic Programs at the Clay Studio, Jennifer Zwilling.

After the tour, learn to make your own transferware plate inspired by the exhibition. Each guest will take home their fired plate after the workshop has concluded.

Carl Smith: City Water, City Life

Online registration is now closed. Walk-up spots are available.

In City Water, City Life, historian and author Carl Smith explores the development of the first successful waterworks systems in Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago between the 1790s and the 1860s. Smith shows how the discussion, design, and use of waterworks reveal how Americans framed their conceptions of urban democracy and how they understood the natural and built environments, individual health and the well-being of society, and the qualities of time and history.

Smith is the Franklyn Bliss Snyder Professor of English & American Studies at Northwestern University.

This program is presented with the Philadelphia Water Works.

Special Tours

We Drink The River

Registration for this event is now closed.

Where does our tap water come from? Where does our wastewater go?

Join the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center for a behind the scenes bus tour of the Philadelphia Water Department’s drinking water system. Learn how it’s connected to our rivers, including past and present-day infrastructure that brings us clean and safe drinking water every day.

Art At Noon

Mapping a Nation: Shaping the Early American Republic

How did maps and mapmakers help create the United States? Join Dr. Erin Holmes and explore the way maps created and extended the physical, political, and ideological boundaries of the new nation while creating and reinforcing structural inequalities in the Early Republic.

Beth Kephart: Stories of the River

The Schuylkill River has run through the dreams and ambitions of Philadelphia and her guests—the walkers, the rowers, the philosophers and politicians, and scientists.

Philadelphia-area writer Beth Kephart has been writing the river for more than a decade—in an “autobiography” called Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River, in Centennial-era novels, in works of journalism and in essays. Kephart will share river-rich scenes of her own before opening the conversation to participants to share river stories of their own.

PAFA Performances

We are the Seeds: Panel and Performance

Join Urie Ridgeway (Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape), Paula Mirabal (Taos Pueblo), and Tailinh Agoyo (Narragansett) for a panel discussion focused on the importance of land and water to Indigenous people past and present. The panelists will also discuss environmental issues Indigenous communities are facing today. Urie and Paula will focus on their homelands and their community’s successes and challenges, while Tailinh will share about her photo series, The Warrior Project, which tells the story of Indigenous children’s concern for the future of their homelands and waterways. Following the discussion, We Are the Seeds dance troupe will perform and renowned artist Tchin will speak to the significance of wampum jewelry, which will also be available for purchase.

After the panel and performance, a special reception will be held at The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) from 3:30-5:00 pm. Located just a short walk from PAFA at 1214 Arch Street, all are welcome to come and

Art History & Appreciation

Landscapes Are Not Neutral

Landscapes show more than just the beauty of the natural environment—they also reveal the biases, agendas and historical problems of the times from which they come. This afternoon of expert talks sought to acknowledge the missing stories and difficult narratives embedded in early American landscape traditions of representation, bringing to the foreground the role of native populations, women, and people of color during the early years of the American experiment. Moderated by Dr. Anna O. Marley, Curator of Historical American Art. 

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Special Tours

Director’s Tour of the American Landscape

Join Brooke Davis Anderson, the Edna S. Tuttleman Director of the Museum, for an intimate look at PAFA’s major exhibition project From the Schuylkill to the Hudson and learn about the insights, surprising contexts and unanticipated questions that have been most compelling during this historic exhibition project.