Cultured Wednesday: Gifford’s Kauterskill Falls

My, what scenery:

Sanford Robinson Gifford (10 July 1823 – 29 August 1880) was an American landscape painter and one of the leading members of the Hudson River School.  His landscapes are known for their emphasis on light and soft atmospheric effects.  The above painting – can you spot the hiker? – was painted in 1862.

Gifford loved to travel, and hike.  After extended travels abroad – anywhere between Alaska and the Nile – he returned to paint his native scene with freshened interest.  He would go off on his woodland expeditions to the Catskills or wherever, knapsack on his back, leaving his studio door unlocked.   In 1862, after his second European trip, he painted the Kauterskill Falls, a favorite subject of Hudson River School artists, veiled in a translucent, radiant mist of atmospheric color.

Wouldn’t you want to sit right there on that little natural platform under the tree after climbing up the steep cliff, and enjoy the wonderful view?  I sure would.