Maryhill Museum of Art will reopen for its 69th season Sunday, March 15. The opening exhibition, “Hudson River School Sojourn,” features 34 paintings by Hudson River School artists Jasper Francis Cropsey, Asher Brown Durand, William Hart, David Johnson and Jervis McEntee, among others. All of the works are drawn from the collection of Dr Michel Hersen and Victoria Hersen and will be on view through July 8.
Opening day festivities will include talks by Dr Hersen and Maryhill curator of exhibits Lee Musgrave, a hands-on family program and a celebratory afternoon reception. All activities are free with paid admission to the museum.
The Hudson River School, comprising two generations of artists inspired and influenced by the awesome beauty of America’s then-unspoiled wild areas, came to prominence during the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century.
Working between 1825 and 1915, primarily in the Hudson River Valley, as well as in the Catskill, Berkshire and White Mountains, and the newly opened West, the Hudson River School firmly established the first American landscape painting tradition.
Hudson River School artists are known for their beautifully composed pastoral paintings, filled with dramatically lit mountains, waterfalls and old growth forests. They worked to evoke an idealized and romantic landscape where humans and nature coexisted peacefully. These artists also reflected a new concept of wilderness that had spread to America from Europe, one in which man was considered an intrusion in a landscape more beautiful than terrifying.
Maryhill Museum of Art is off Highway 97. For information, 509-773-3733 or www.maryhillmuseum.org .
