From the Schuylkill to the Hudson delves into the important and under-explored tradition of landscape painting in Philadelphia from the early American Republic (1775) to the Centennial International Exposition (1876), and how that corpus shaped the better-known Hudson River School.
Examining for the first time Philadelphia's role in the development of American landscape painting, the book considers the landscape genre across multiple mediums, including paintings, watercolors, prints, miniatures and ceramics. Focusing on the shifting symbolism of local waterways and rivers, the publication explores how these sites became emblematic of the young nation's values and narratives.
Featuring works drawn from the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, including paintings by luminaries such as Thomas Cole, Thomas Doughty and William Russell Birch, this volume narrates landscape's trajectory from a contextual tool in American portraiture to a subject in its own right.