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Does art bore and/or confuse you? Do you find yourself [Boy looking at paintings yawns.]

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wondering how somebody could have paid a million dollars for a pile of shoes

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dipped in bronze? Well, maybe you just need something a bit more up your alley. Oh

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look, a pretty picture. Yep, you're going to find a lot of those here in the gallery

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dedicated to the Hudson River School. As the first school of American art, the

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Hudson River School made American landscapes the "in" thing to paint. But it [Artist paints picture on eazel.]

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wasn't just because America had a ton of awe-inspiring scenery. See, the painters of the

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Hudson River School were hooked on Transcendentalism. Their art was the

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visual embodiment of the American quest for individualism, communion with the

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divine, and in-depth experiences with nature... oh, and the basic goodness of man,

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beast, and pine tree. Well, the artists of the Hudson River School didn't just [Artist runs away from bear and into a tree.]

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paint the scenery of the Hudson River Valley. Later generations of painters in

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the school ventured much further afield to places like the maritime provinces of

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Canada, the American West, and even South America. Okay, so a few of them might just

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have been looking for an excuse to take a vacation down there, but uh... separate story. [Artist lies back on sun lounger.]

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One of the most famous painters of the Hudson River School was Albert Bierstadt.

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Bierstadt only painted in New York for like, a year. In 1859, he took the

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first of many trips to the American frontier, where he painted the Rocky

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Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas. Of course, by the time Bierstadt died, the epic [Bierstadt jumps into coffin.]

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landscapes of the Hudson River School were totally passé. The American public

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had moved on to enjoying the illustrations and sculptures of men like

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Frederick Remington, who focused less on the background and more on the cowboys

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and Native Americans who were quickly disappearing from the Western scene.

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Yeehaw, indeed. Now, you might notice here in our gallery that a lot of the

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pictures are of the same landscape. Here's a mountain in the summer, here's

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the same mountain in the fall, and the same mountain in winter. Doesn't get [Boy walks along exhibit looking at similar paintings.]

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around much, does it? Well, the painters of the Hudson River School liked to capture

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the same spot over and over again on canvas but in different seasons, and in [Artist sweats whilst trying to paint quickly.]

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different weather, and at different times of day. The idea

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was that these changes to the scenery revealed deeper truths about life and death

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and nature. It also looked cool and was way easier than coming up with

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something new to paint. Next time you find yourself wandering the art museum

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looking for a piece of art that makes you feel something other than complete

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confusion, boredom, or worse, why not come here to admire the paintings of the

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Hudson River School? Nobody else does, so, you know, you'll have the place all [Art gallery with cobwebs and dust on the exhibit.]

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to yourself. Yep, you and the crickets.

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