American Waters: Celebrating the 400th Anniversary of Hudson, Fulton and Champlain brings to light many works that have rarely been viewed by the public. American Waters features more than 50 works drawn from the National Academy’s wide-ranging collection of American art. This exhibition was on view at the National Academy Museum February 4 - April 5, 2009. Spanning the period 1850-2000, American Waters explores the myriad ways American artists have represented American aquatic environs, especially in the northeastern regions.
in 2009 New York State and its many communities celebrated a yearlong series of events to commemorate the 400th anniversary of New York State and the dual anniversaries of the voyages of English Captain Henry Hudson and Frenchman Samuel de Champlain. Within a century of their discoveries, the waterways that now bear the names Hudson and Champlain merged into one vital corridor at the epicenter of global commerce, politics and ideas. To celebrate these simultaneous Quadricentennials – as well as the 200th anniversary of Robert Fulton’s successful maiden steamboat journey up the Hudson River– the National Academy’s exhibition, American Waters revealed a unique historical perspective through select paintings of rural and urban American landscapes captured by generations of American artists.
Among the eastern sites pictured were the Hudson River and Niagara Falls of New York, the Saco River of New Hampshire, and Blubber Island in Maine. Some highlights of the exhibition were paintings by members of the second generation of the Hudson River School, which included
John Frederick Kensett’s dramatic painting of Bash-Bish Falls, one of Massachusetts’ highest and most dramatic waterfalls.
A section devoted to the landscape and marine painter William Trost Richards offered eight works given to the Academy by his daughter in 1952 and included a suite of five masterful watercolors of the sea that have not been seen by the public in many years. In contrast,
Junius Allens,
Guy Carleton Wiggens and
Ernest Lawson
describe the cityscapes along Manhattan’s ever changing waters’ edge.
American Waters provided a distinctive view of a variety of areas all across the continental United States. The exhibition featured the Academy’s superb, but little known group of paintings by leading Pennsylvania Impressionists Daniel Garber, and Edward Willis Redfield who painted in and around New Hope.
Western waterways were represented by Albert Bierstadt’s sparkling view of Devil’s Gate, a gorge on the Sweetwater River in Wyoming, which was a major landmark along the Oregon Trail,
Gregory Kondos’ 1993 view of a lonely strip of modern homes bordered by the Sacramento River, and Susan Shatter’s 1990 Alluvial Fantasy, based on observations and studies of natural erosion the artist made while working on the west coast. The imagery in Gregory Amenoff’s Dusk and Dim 1, 1996, developed as the result of spending time observing the role of water in the desert of the American Southwest. .
Among the 53 artists featured were Gregory Amenoff, Robert Berlind, Albert Bierstadt, George H. Boughton, Howard Russell Butler, Jasper Francis Cropsey, Asher B. Durand, Yasu Eguchi, Robert Gwathmey, Daniel P. Huntington, William Hart, George Inness, Yvonne Jacquette, John F. Kensett, Paul Resika, William Trost Richards, George Gardner Symons, Charles H. Woodbury and Newell Convers Wyeth.
American Waters: Celebrating the 400th Anniversary of Hudson, Fulton and Champlain was organized by Bruce Weber, Senior Curator, 19th Century Art, and has received the generous support of the F. Donald Kenney Memorial Fund, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts.
The National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts is an honorary association of professional American artists with a museum and an art school, modeled on London’s Royal Academy. The institution was founded in 1825 to promote contemporary painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking and architecture in the United States. The Academy’s Museum organizes traveling shows accompanied by scholarly catalogues and hosts exhibitions from other museums. The Academy’s School features classes and master workshops in all styles and fine arts media. Public programs including lectures, symposia, panel discussions, and events for seniors and families are offered to the public.
Works on Display
1. Junius Allen, (1898-1962)
East River Waterfront, 1940
Oil on canvas, 25 x 30 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
2. Gregory Amenoff, b. 1948
Dusk and Dim I, 1996
Oil on canvas, 52 x 62 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
3. Robert Berlind, b. 1938
Pond’s Edge, 1994
Oil on linen, 54 x 48 _ inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
4. Albert Bierstadt, (1830-1902)
On the Sweetwater, Near Devil’s Gate, 1860
Oil on millboard, 12 _ x 18 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
5. George H. Boughton, (1833-1905)
Winter Scene II, 1860
Oil on canvas, 15 1/8 x 12 _ inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
6. Howard Russell Butler, (1856-1934)
Surf and Rocks, 1944
Oil on canvas, 40 _ x 50 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
7. John Fabian Carlson, (1874-1945)
Woodland Idyl, 1926
Oil on canvas, 25 x 30 3/8 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
8. John Costigan, (1888-1972)
The Sun’s Reflection, c. 1925
Oil on canvas, 45 1/8 x 45 1/8 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
9. Jasper Cropsey, (1823-1900)
Coast Scene, 1855
Oil on canvas, 17 x 26 1/8 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
10. Charles Temple Dix, (1838-1873)
Marblehead Rocks, 1868
Oil on canvas, 38 x 60 _ inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
11. Asher B. Durand, (1796–1886)
Landscape, 1850
Oil on canvas, 27 _ x 38 _ inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
12. Yasu Eguchi, b. 1938
Near the Spring, 1980
Watercolor, 43 x 79 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
13. Daniel Garber, (1880-1958)
By Addingham, 1911
Oil on canvas, 25 _ x 30 1/8 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
14. Marie Francois Regis Gignoux, (1814-1882)
Niagara Falls
Oil on canvas, 16 x 32 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
15. Robert Gwathmey, (1903-1988)
Soft Crabbing, 1976
Oil on canvas, 20 x 15 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
16. William Hart, (1823-1894)
Landscape, c. 1859
Oil on canvas, 7 _ x 10 _ inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
17. William Hart, (1823-1894)
Twilight
Oil on canvas, 12 x 22 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
18. Daniel Huntington, (1816-1906)
Glimpses From the Forest, c. 1862
Oil on canvas, 17 _ x 21 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
19. George Inness, (1825-1894)
Landscape, 1860
Oil on paper mounted on panel, 16 _ x 24 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
20. Yvonne Jacquette, b. 1934
Embarcadero II, 1984
Monoprint and pastel hand coloring on white paper, 61 _ x 38 _ inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
21. Wolf Kahn, b. 1927
Pond in November, 1977
Oil on canvas, 29 x 36 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
22. John F. Kensett, (1816-1872)
Glimpse Through the Wood, c. 1850
Oil on canvas, 12 x 10 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
23. John F. Kensett, (1816-1872)
The Bash-Bish, 1855
Oil on canvas, 36 1/8 x 29 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
24. John F. Kensett, (1816-1872)
On the Narragansett Coast, 1864
Oil on canvas, 9 _ x 20 _ inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
25. Gregory Kondos, b. 1923
Courtland, Sacramento River, 1993
Oil on canvas, 24 x 32 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
26. Ernest Lawson, (1873-1939)
Road Down the Palisades
Oil on canvas, 25 x 30 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
27. Emma Fordyce MacRae, (1887-1974)
Pigeon Cove, c. 1951
Oil on cardboard, 24 _ x 29 _ inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
28. Louis R. Mignot, (1831-1870)
Sources of the Susquehanna, 1857
Oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
29. Anne Poor, (1918-2002)
Derricks on the Horizon, Haverstraw, c. 1974
Oil on canvas, 30 x 45 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
30. Marjorie Portnow, b. 1943
The Cut in the Marsh: Cape Cod Regatta, 1995
Oil on Masonite, 11 _ x 19 _ inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
31. Edward Redfield, (1869-1965)
River in Winter, c. 1906
Oil on canvas, 22 7/8 x 31 _ inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
32. Paul Resika, b. 1928
The End of the Hurricane, 1979
Oil on canvas, 24 x 29 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
33. Paul Resika, b. 1928
Calypso, 1999-2000
Oil on canvas 28 x 35 _ inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
34. William Trost Richards, (1833-1905)
Coastal Scene, 1862
Oil on cardboard, 8 1/16 x 12 1/8 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
35. William Trost Richards, (1833-1905)
Marine with Yachts, c. 1870
Watercolor and gouache on green-grey wove paper, 8 3/16 x 13 7/8 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
36. William Trost Richards, (1833-1905)
Seascape, 1875
Watercolor and gouache on cream wove paper, 8 13/16 x 13 7/8 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
37. William Trost Richards, (1833-1905)
The Coming Rain, Narragansett Bay, c. 1890
Watercolor on off-white wove paper, 10 1/16 x 14 _ inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
38. William Trost Richards, (1833-1905)
Shoreline with Bird, 1897
Watercolor and graphite on cream wove paper
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
39. William Trost Richards, (1833-1905)
Coastal Sunset
Watercolor and gouache on cream wove paper, 9 13/16 x 15 11/16 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
40. William Trost Richards, (1833-1905)
Connanicut Shore with Breaking Wave
Oil on composition board, 12 _ x 23 7/8 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
41. Clare Romano, b. 1922
Big Falls, 1986
Color collagraph and woodcut on cream paper
29 _ x 22 _ inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
42. Edward Francis Rook, (1870-1960)
Flume in Snow (Flume in Winter), c. 1920
Oil on canvas, 30 x 36 _ inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
43. Susan Shatter, b. 1943
Alluvial Fantasy, 1990
Watercolor and graphite on white wove paper, 20 5/16 x 46 _ inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
44. Aaron Draper Shattuck, (1832-1928)
The Ford, 1856
Oil on canvas, 16 x 24 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
45. Aaron Draper Shattuck, (1832-1928)
Along the Saco, 1857
Oil on canvas, 5 x8 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
46. George Gardner Symons, (1861-1930)
Swift Flowing River in Winter, 1912
Oil on canvas, 29 x 38 5/8 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
47. Reuben Tam (1916-1991)
Monhegan Night, 1956
Oil on canvas, 34 x 46 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
48. Thomas Worthington Whittredge (1820-1910)
Study from Nature, 1956
Oil on canvas, 19 _ x 15 _ inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
49. Guy Wiggins, (1883-1962)
Manhattan, 1929
Oil on canvas, 30 x 60 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
50. Charles H. Woodbury, (1864-1940)
October, c. 1908
Oil on canvas, 27 x 27 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
51. Newell Convers Wyeth, (1882-1945)
Blubber Island, Maine, 1940
Oil on gesso ground, 25 x 40 inches
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
