Wild valleys and golden air
Hudson River School
American painters of the middle 1800s who carried their easels up the Hudson, and then a long way further. Cole’s ruined arch above the plain at Tivoli, Church’s Andes with a waterfall in the middle distance, Bierstadt’s granite walls over the Merced in Yosemite, Lane’s Gloucester harbour at sundown, a man sitting by Heade’s black water as the storm comes in, and Heade’s hummingbird among red passionflowers.
As a puzzle
Big skies and soft distances. Start in the near ground, where there is the most to hold: trees, rocks, a ruined arch, the broken columns of the Parthenon, then work back towards the mountains. The skies and the far haze are wide and pale, Gifford’s Tivoli is nearly all one gold, and Heade’s storm is half black water. Church’s Andes takes a high count well; keep the others moderate.
A good size here: 50–200 pieces.
Subjects here: LandscapesRivers and LakesMountainsThe Sea
16 pictures, pick one to build
Heart of the Andes Frederic Edwin Church, 1859 
A View near Tivoli (Morning) Thomas Cole, 1832 
Merced River, Yosemite Valley Albert Bierstadt, 1866 
Hummingbird and Passionflowers Martin Johnson Heade, ca. 1875–85 
The Camp Meeting Worthington Whittredge, 1874 
Bayside, New Rochelle, New York David Johnson, 1886 
Scene at Napanoch William Hart, 1883 
A River Glimpse Thomas Doughty, ca. 1843–50 
Lago Avernus William Trost Richards, ca. 1867–70 
Stage Fort across Gloucester Harbor Fitz Henry Lane (formerly Fitz Hugh Lane), 1862 
Sketch for View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm (The Oxbow) Thomas Cole, 1836 
The Parthenon Frederic Edwin Church, 1871 
Tivoli Sanford Robinson Gifford, 1870 
Approaching Thunder Storm Martin Johnson Heade, 1859 
The Trout Pool Worthington Whittredge, 1870 
Spring Landscape Thomas Doughty, ca. 1853–56