Tuesdays, May 26 – June 16, 12 – 2pm
Thomas Cole. View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow (detail), 1836. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gift of Mrs. Russell Sage, 1908
$220; members $198
(4 classes)
About the Class
If the American landscape painting movement commonly known as the Hudson River School didn’t think of itself as a school and wasn’t confined to the environs of New York’s Hudson River, what was it?
The explosion in landscape painting in the mid-19th century in the hands of artists like Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, Robert Duncanson, and Julie Hart Beers has long been the stuff of blockbuster exhibitions, calendars, and postage stamps. However, the way that these pleasant old pictures intersect with industry and politics is often overlooked. Participants in this course will develop a tool kit to read any landscape painting and understand the key players and essential issues of this genre in a period of dramatic change.
The class is online-only. More about online classes.
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Barnes classes will:
- Sharpen your observational and critical thinking skills.
- Improve your ability to communicate about art.
- Deepen your appreciation for cultures and histories outside your own.
Instructor
William L. Coleman
Coleman is a specialist in the history of American landscape painting and currently serves as director of the Wyeth Study Center at the Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, and at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine. He has curated and published widely on the Hudson River School, and his doctorate at UC Berkeley focused on the artist Thomas Cole.
What Our Students Say
“The instructor is a gifted individual who is able to [engage] with all different kinds of learners and motivate us to want to learn more, see more, and experience more. I would highly recommend any course by this instructor.” —Collection Concentration: Medieval Modern with Kaelin Jewell
“Martha Lucy knows how to balance her lecture with fact, excellent painting selections, and inclusion of the students.” —The Art and Life of Toulouse-Lautrec with Martha Lucy
“The best class to understand the elements of art. The instructor’s expertise and warmth, along with the excellent discussions with my classmates, made it a truly wonderful experience.” —The Elements of Art with William Perthes
“This class offered rich insight into Picasso and his contemporaries—the gallery scene, turn-of-the-century politics, Catalan culture, along with Picasso’s approach to composition and contemporary European culture. It was so informative.” —Picasso in Focus: New Discoveries at the Barnes with Christine Romano and Naina Saligram
“Caterina loves the material she presents and infuses all her classes—of which I have taken many—with that infectious enthusiasm.” —Rendez-vous au Café: Café Culture in 19th-Century Art with Caterina Pierre
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