Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823-1900), 'Sunset, Hudson River,' 1897, oil on canvas, 30.5 x 50.8 cm. Brigham Young University Museum of Art, gift of Robert W. Metcalf.
As we anticipate the transition from the blistering of summer heat to the crispness of fall, let us celebrate a painting in which the sun itself retreats into the autumn leaves.
This sunset view of the Hudson River depicts the area just north of Cropsey's retirement cottage at Hastings-on-Hudson. The artist called this particular locale "one of the finest passages of scenery of the river." Autumn, with its rich scarlets and ochres, was a favored season among many landscape painters of the time. Cropsey specialized in painting the fall for half a century, devoting himself almost exclusively to that theme in his later career.
Guest author: Curatorial intern Tessa Haney
