Date: Fri 20-Mar-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: CAROLL

Quick Words:

HudsonRiver

Full Text:

Where Land Meets River w/1 cut

YONKERS, N.Y. -- "Where Land Meets River," an exhibit which chronicles both

the Hudson River's natural beauty and its evolution as a center of

transportation, industry and human habitation, will be featured to May 10 and

from June 23 to September 20 at The Hudson River Museum.

On view will be a selection of 25 works from the museum's permanent

collection, including oils, engravings and watercolors dating from 1820

through 1915. The works reflect the various styles of American art during

those years, including the Hudson River School style, realism, American

Barbizon, Tonalism and Modernism.

Among the highlights are selections from the 1821-25 Hudson River Portfolio

(aquatints by John Hill from the watercolors of William Guy Wall); a set of

decorative cornices by an unknown artist dating from the mid-Nineteenth

Century; two oils by master ship painter James Bard; Hudson River School

artist Jasper Cropsey's large rendering of the village of Hastings-on-Hudson,

his home for the last 15 years of his life; and Daniel Putnam Brinley's

colorful interpretation of the Yonkers Sugar Factory, dated circa 1915, and

reflecting the influence of European Modernism.

"Where Land Meets River" is divided into four sections. "The Vista" shows the

openness and immense breadth of the Hudson, accenting the sheer magnitude of

its physical presence. "The Human Presence" chronicles the development of

community along the Hudson showing the River as a center of community life,

transportation, recreation and development. "Boating on the River" presents

the variety of boats that have plied the Hudson over the centuries for

transportation and recreation including sailboats, side-wheelers and

steamboats. "The Palisades" profiles one of the Hudson's great natural

landmarks.

The exhibition was organized by Philip Verre, museum director. Several Hudson

River landscapes on long-term display in the museum's Glenview Mansion (1876)

supplement the exhibition.

"Sailboats and Sidewheeler Star, " by an unknown artist, represents an

important work in the exhibition. It illustrates sailboats arduously fighting

the waves at a passage in the Hudson Highlands known as "Wind-gate." A

steamboat calmly advancing up river during the storm is also pictured,

depicting the river as a mighty force of nature gradually being tamed by

technology. The theme of ship transport on the river is also developed by oil

painter James Bard in his work "The Hudson River Steamboat Francis Skiddy. "

The work provides an excellent example of Bard's compositional motifs, from

the shining white steamboat in simple profile with its captain, fire stoker,

workers and passengers aboard to the glorious sunset above the Palisades.

Lectures and activities in conjunction with the exhibition will include on

Wednesday, June 24, at 1:30 pm, a workshop with artist Diane Churchill to

create a postcard size collage landscape that participants can frame. On

Wednesday, July 22, Verre, curator of the exhibition, will walk through and

talk about the exhibition and another one titled "Collection Sculpture."

Museum admission is $3. For information, 914/963-4550.