Copy of EMERSON’S “NATURE” Art Chart.docx

Painting

Emerson Excerpt

Justification for Pairing

In the Woods,

1855 Asher B. Durand

“In the woods is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, -- no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair.”

Durand’s painting of a thick forest within which meanders a tranquil stream that leads the viewer’s eye through the woods to the distant blue sky peeking out from the horizon line captures the majesty of Emerson’s description of the woods. Emerson characterizes the woods as “plantations of God” wherein “a decorum and sanctity reign.” Both Durand and Emerson portray the woods as a place that is inviting and holy. Therefore, this excerpt should accompany Durand’s painting because the pairing reflects not only the same subject but also the same attitude.

The Titan’s Goblet, 1833 Thomas Cole

“I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty. In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature.”

Cole’s painting of a goblet in front of a mountainscape represents the quote in the way that man’s presence in nature can become one with nature, representing the manmade goblet in the beautiful landscape becoming one with the landscape.

View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm— The Oxbow, 1836 Thomas Cole

Hudson River Highlands, 1875 Robert Havell

“When we speak of nature in this manner, we have a distinct but most poetical sense in the mind. We mean the integrity of impression made by manifold natural objects. It is this which distinguishes the stick of timber of the wood-cutter, from the tree of the poet. The charming landscape which I saw this morning, is indubitably made up of some twenty or thirty farms. Miller owns this field, Locke that, and Manning the woodland beyond. But none of them owns the landscape.”

“There is a property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet. This is the best part of these men's farms, yet to this their warranty-deeds give no title.”

Holyoke’s painting is one of a landscape with some dark clouds in the corner. The clouds represent the looming presence of mankind, but the landscape is unaffected because nobody can own it.

Havells painting of the distant river valley, surrounded by golden trees and covered with cloudy skies, holds the beauty that only a poet could accurately describe. Thus Emerson's description of a horizon that “no man has but he whose eye can integrate all parts, this is, the poet,” is accurate to this painting. Therefore, this painting and this excerpt should accompany each other, as the painter painted a view only a poet could describe well with words.

Newburyport Meadows, ca. 1876–81 Martin Johnson Heade

“Nature says, -- he is my creature, and maugre all his impertinent griefs, he shall be glad with me. Not the sun or the summer alone, but every hour and season yields its tribute of delight; for every hour and change corresponds to and authorizes a different state of the mind, from breathless noon to grimmest midnight.”

Heade’s painting of a meadow landscape shows a range of emotions with the contrast of the light sky and the dark clouds. This represents the quote by displaying the contrast in nature represented by emotion. The stormy atmosphere and sunny weather reflects the line of “from breathless noon to grimmest midnight”.

Artist at his Easel in the Woods, (Unknown) Thomas Hill

“In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, -- no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, -- my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space -- all mean egotism vanishes.”

Hill’s painting of an artist in the woods represents the quote by showing that the man is in solitude and at peace in nature, just like the quote where he is submerged in nature so he can be free. The man is free to be himself and have no societal pressures pushing on him, representing the line of “no disgrace, no calamity”.

Aurora Borealis, 1865 Frederic Edwin Church

““Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. To a man laboring under calamity, the heat of his own fire hath sadness in it. Then, there is a kind of contempt of the landscape felt by him who has just lost a dear friend. The sky is less grand as it shuts down over less worth in the population.”

Church’s painting shows a colorful aurora borealis in nature, the only manmade object shown being a lowlit boat that is not highlighted. The quote talks about bright colors and how the sky isn’t as beautiful in the eyes of people. This is also represented in the painting by the innocuous boat in the setting of the beautiful setting.