Currently not on view
The Hudson Highlands from West Point,
1839
More Context
Handbook Entry
One of the founders of the Hudson River School, Thomas Doughty took up painting around 1820, just as landscape was emerging as a principal preoccupation of American artists. By the 1830s, he was painting scenery in the New York area, such as this dramatic view of the Hudson River. Doughty’s watercolor not only evokes a familiar site with military associations, but also points toward the larger connotations of a commanding prospect. Its panoramic sweep speaks to an expansive, even imperial, vision of the American landscape that goes back to Thomas Jefferson, who in his first inaugural address in 1801 spoke of "a rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful land . . . advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye.";
Information
1839
United States, New York, Hudson River Valley
The Highlands from West Point
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1996," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 56, no. 1/2 (1997): p. 75-115., p. 115
- John Wilmerding et al., American Art in the Princeton University Art Museum: volume 1: drawings and watercolors, (Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum; New Haven, CT; London: Yale University Press, 2004), p. 256, cat. no. 66; p. 257 (illus.); p. 308, checklist no. 267
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 266 (illus.)
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 318
