Depiction of Nature Through Renoir and Cole
- Emily Sims
- Mar 1, 2019
- 7 min read
Emily Sims
Art 110
November 20th, 2017
Depiction of Nature Through Renoir and Cole
North American landscape paintings first gained popularity in the 1830s due to the subject of a new frontier untouched by man that differed from landscape paintings before. The painting The Oxbow by Thomas Cole, in 1836, can be connected to the excerpt of Renoir's notebook on irregularity. Renoir discusses the importance of nature, which is exemplified in The Oxbow through contrasting landscapes. The Oxbow is important to the theme of nature because of Cole’s representation of the American landscape. Thomas Cole wanted to stress the varying scenery in the same area in order to distinguish America’s view from depictions of European landscape. Renoir advocated for artists to go into nature in order to find inspiration, originality and truly understand life without materialism. The Oxbow truly represents Renoir’s idea of nature through his painting of dark, fierce wilderness compared to the smooth curving Connecticut River and clean patchwork of farms.
During the 1830s and 1840s, a movement based on the purity of nature and man took over the American art scene. Based on German philosophy, Transcendentalism refuted society’s reliance on religious and political parties believing that nature was an escape from this corruption. While there seems to be a realistic approach to the depiction of the nature scenes, the wilderness scenes are dramatically romanticized to foster a love of the untamed American landscape. During the transcendental period, art was subjected to a new standard referred to as sublime where “art was no longer to be judged by its intrinsic qualities ...according to canons of beauty but by its ability to induce a physiological state in the viewer”. Greek art had invented the canon of Polyklietos setting in place a long standing standard upon which all other art was judged by to measure the beauty of the work. The transcendental movement rejected this one solid idea of beauty because it was solely based on how the artist rendered objects according to specific ratios. Now art was not to be assessed according to the artist’s style but by how the viewer felt looking at the painting. Transcendentalists believed the viewer of art should not be impressed by the name of the painter or the specific subject matter or style of the work. Instead, the art appreciator should judge a work by their own feelings that were evoked by the presence of the work. Renoir touched on this phenomenon in his notebooks, he states, “[my friend] told me naively that he had never understood until that morning why the picture was beautiful… until then, he had always followed the crowd in being impressed only by the signature” . Based on his encounter with a friend, Renoir agrees with the transcendental philosophy on art because he believes one should only focus on the impression an artwork leaves on the viewer. By refuting the pretentious notions of judging a work of art by their use of a previously conceived canon of beauty or the notoriety of the actual artist, transcendentalists are able to enjoy the painting independently of other’s opinions of it because no two people can experience a painting the same exact way or having the same feelings elicited from it.
Thomas Cole was considered the founding father of the Hudson River School, which was the first school of painting in the United States. The Hudson River School was a group of artists, located in the Hudson Valley in New York, that created a new variety of landscape paintings. Unlike European landscapes, the Hudson River Valley paintings showed the unruly wilderness of America that had little human influence. Cole pioneered the change in landscape paintings because his subjects were unique to America and its issues at the time. He gained inspiration directly from nature as Thomas Cole would sail down the Hudson
River sketching the scenes of wilderness he saw before him. Cole learned directly from nature, which Renoir viewed as the only way to truly gain insight into the world around us and the way to become a real artist in his eyes.
In his notebooks, Pierre-Auguste Renoir discusses the irregularity found within nature. Renoir believed that in order for true art to be created, the artist must submerge themselves within nature to learn from the irregularity of life. Irregularity in nature is glaringly apparent with snowflakes. At first, all the snow flurries look exactly the same, but upon closer inspection each snowflake is unique with varying shapes. Renoir states, “an artist, under the pain of oblivion, must have confidence in himself, and listen only to his real master: Nature” . Therefore, Renoir believes an artist is not measured by the quality of their tools or the popularity of their name, but by their interpretation of nature. The only way to learn how to paint by observing the varying shapes of leaves found within the forest or studying tree limbs to see how they are formed and supported by the trunk. According to Renoir’s notebooks, he suggests learning a lesson from Japanese painters because they “sat down in the countryside and watched birds flying…by watching them carefully, the finally came to understand movement” . The Japanese learned to paint nature by immersing themselves in the wilderness and studying every intricate detail of the animals, the foliage and saw how all of the small, unique objects wove together to create a forest. Renoir firmly believed in artists going into nature to learn, which is exactly what Cole did in order to paint The Oxbow. The Oxbow is a prime example of Renoir’s idea of irregularity because outlines how nature can vastly differ but coexist in the same space. Irregularity is shown through the perspective of the painting where two very different landscapes are in close proximity to one another. Both the wild forest and sprawling fields are a product of the nature and can exist in the same territory but look like polar opposites.
The Oxbow has an underlying historical importance because it illustrates the political climate of the 1830s. In the far right corner, a soldier is visible placing his flag on the hill and a minuscule artist is gazing into the audience as if contemplating the changing of America’s social landscape. In the left corner of the painting there is a dark, untamed forest which is separated from the farms on the right by a river. Cole is illustrating the destruction of forests in favor of industry and the migration of people spreading all over the continent disrupting what was once nature. Many of the Hudson River School paintings reflect the artist's’ oppositions to the direction of society’s progress. The industrial age was beginning to take shape which threatened the untouched American landscape in New England. For example, the oil painting called View of Hudson by Henry Ary, in 1852, shows factories in New York protruding from the skyline interrupting the scenic view of the Hudson River. This work served as a warning that society’s economic and technological progression would come at a hefty cost that would prove to be irreversible.
Cole’s stylistic approach to painting the Oxbow is important because it began a new era of landscape paintings. Both realistic in the physical paintings of objects yet romanticized to show the swelling American pride of the landscape of the new world. The natural scenery of the North American landscapes symbolized a higher moral conscious and the autonomy of the self. A main proponent of the background of Hudson River School paintings is the belief that submersion in nature lead to a higher state of being. Therefore, by illuminating the peaceful scenery in North America, Cole and the other Hudson River School artists forced their viewers into a contemplative and emotional state.
The Oxbow shows an important cultural change because it represents the growing patriotism of Americans. By contrasting American landscape paintings so vastly from those previously created showing European lands, Thomas Cole was able to create an artist style that was unique to America. Cole used the change in landscape to foster a sense of American pride that separated them from their roots in Europe. The oxbow was also created during the transcendental period which rejected society’s controversial political climate. Cole used the contrast of two different landscapes, one civilized and the other not, to criticize the movement of society toward industrialization. Society was becoming divided over the technological advances with factories that harmed nature. While many were for the progression of industry, others feared for the survival of the old way of life such as the success of farmers and the protection of natural resources and wilderness.
Thomas Cole and Renoir believed artists needed to fully experience the wilderness to appreciate and create worthwhile art. The concept of irregularity that Renoir discusses in his notebooks can be compared to Cole’s painting The Oxbow. The Oxbow shows irregularity within the landscapes presented. The stark contrast of inhibited farmland to the dark, wooded areas separated by a serene river, illustrates irregularity occurring in the New England landscape. Everything that exists purely in nature is not uniform, instead every detail of every organism or object differs. By studying the intricate elements of the wilderness, artists can grasp a new understanding of the world. Artists that paint from their observations, like Thomas Cole, paint to evoke deep feelings from within the viewer. Artwork enables artist to portray historical, political, social and economic changes that people of the time can understand and relate to; also enabling scholars of the future to glimpse into the lives of people in the past.
Works Cited
Lewis, Michael J. "American sublime." New Criterion 21, no. 1 (September 2002): 27.
MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 27, 2017).
Novak, Barbara. 2007. American Painting of the Nineteenth Century: Realism, Idealism, and the
American Experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed November 27, 2017).
PLEIN AIR: How Hudson River School art influenced the American spirit. (cover story)." New
York State Conservationist 67, no. 5 (April 2013): 6. MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 27, 2017).
Renoir, Pierre-Aguste. No date. [On Irregularity]. Excerpt from Auguste Renoir’s Notebook. In
Jean Renoir. Renoir, My Father. New York: Little Brown, 1958. 240-245.
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