A Lush Summer Landscape 1864

Curator: The canvas before us is David Johnson’s "A Lush Summer Landscape," painted in 1864. Its execution very much situates Johnson within the Hudson River School. Editor: Lush indeed! There's an immediate sense of tranquility; a delicate layering of greens, blues, and the muted tones of the distant mountains creates a very calming vista. Curator: Johnson’s contemporaries also found the rural landscape quite pastoral. Take note, however, of the painting's context: 1864, the height of the American Civil War. Paintings such as this found a ready market. What impact did industrial war and urban growth have on our cultural and environmental consciousness? Editor: That subdued light, diffused across the whole composition, does create a sense of escape from any turmoil. Observe how it models form; notice especially the highlights on the larger tree. And what do you make of the sky itself? The graduation in tonality creates significant depth within the whole picture. Curator: I am most struck by the sheer material resources necessary to produce this idealized view of rural America. Johnson was working for wealthy merchants and professionals wanting reassurance as their environment shifted rapidly. The image thus served a market need, it served capital. Editor: Perhaps. But within that context, Johnson has also created a balanced and satisfying composition. There's the framing created by the rocks and trees, the winding river, and the small building to the right. It's an artwork with very balanced forms. Curator: Exactly. Those compositional and stylistic choices were deliberately shaped to reassure his affluent, mostly urban clientele that rural America, the food source, still existed, unchanging. The Hudson River School made an industry out of that theme. Editor: An industry or, perhaps, a genuine appreciation of a fleeting beauty, captured through light and paint? Curator: Both, wouldn't you say? Johnson had the skill, the material means, and he sold the resultant landscape at a profit, in troubled times. Editor: Ultimately, it's a complex work that offers, to me, as a modern viewer, something timeless in its tranquil depiction of the countryside.