George Frayne (19th/20th Century) American, Oil on Board. A pastoral scene with cattle watering on a tranquil river. Signed bottom left. Tag on back includes framing information. 

Overall: 14 X 17 3/4 in. 

Sight: 7 1/2 X 11 1/2 in. 

Depth: 2 in. 

#2793 . 

The Hudson River School was a mid-to-late 19th Century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. Early on, the paintings typically depicted the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area, including the Catskill, Adirondack, and White Mountains. Works by second-generation artists expanded to include other locales in New England, the Maritimes, the American West, and South America. The school of landscape painters flourished between 1825 and 1870, which was often called the “native” school. New York City was the center of it, as many members had studios in the Tenth Street Studio Building in Greenwich Village. The term Hudson River School is thought to have been coined by the New York Tribune art critic Clarence Cook or by landscape painter Homer Dodge Martin, and first appeared in print in 1879. It was initially used disparagingly, as the style had gone out of favor after the plein-air Barbizon School had come into vogue among American patrons and collectors. Hudson River School paintings often reflect three key themes of America in the 19th Century: discovery, exploration, and settlement. They also depict the American landscape as a pastoral setting, where human beings and nature coexist peacefully. Hudson River School landscapes are characterized by their realistic, detailed, and sometimes idealized portrayal of nature, often juxtaposing peaceful agriculture and the remaining wilderness which was fast disappearing from the Hudson Valley just as it was coming to be appreciated for its qualities of ruggedness and sublimity. The school gained renewed interest after World War I, likely due to nationalist attitudes, and has had several minor resurgences since then, usually in conjunction with economic downturns in the central and upper New York areas. Historic house museums and other sites dedicated to the Hudson River School include Olana State Historic Site in Hudson, New York, the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in the town of Catskill, and the research library in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.