A Hudson River School Legacy: The Newman Bequest and Other Gifts

Over some two decades, Arthur and Eileen Newman assembled a collection of landscapes and still lifes painted between 1845 and 1880. Inspired by the natural beauty of the Hudson River Valley region and the emotional intensity of the scenes captured by painters of the first self-consciously “American” school of art, the Newmans acquired works by artists including Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church, and Martin Johnson Heade.

In 2015, Arthur and Eileen Newman generously gifted 15 magnificent Hudson River School paintings from their collection to the New-York Historical Society. These new acquisitions, shown alongside selected examples from New-York Historical’s holdings, are displayed together for the first time since they hung on the walls of the Newmans’ Manhattan home.

In addition, New-York Historical presents ​​The Inspiration:​ ​“​​​​The Hudson River Portfolio​.​”​ ​In 1820 Irish-born ​​William Guy Wall embarked on a sketching tour of the Hudson River Valley​, and a selection of ​his watercolors were engraved by English-born John Hill in ​​​​The Portfolio, long-considered the forerunner of the Hudson River School of painters. ​See all eight rare​,​ known watercolor models by Wall​, a bound copy of The Portfolio,​ and other related works.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.

Whether or not you go, the New-York Historical Society publication, The Hudson River School: Nature and the AmericanVision, is a seminal survey of the mid-1800s artists which marks the first presentation of the outstanding collection at the New-York Historical Society. It features works by all the greatest artists of the group, including Thomas Cole, Asher Durand, Albert Bierstadt, and Frederic Church. These New York-based painters turned their focus to the theme of the natural landscape to demonstrate the beauty of the wilderness, and their work enjoyed a popular national success that no other group of artists has achieved since. 

The Hudson River School: Nature and the AmericanVision