We look out onto a sweeping, panoramic view with trees, their leaves fiery orange and red, framing a view of a distant body of water under a sun-streaked sky in this long, horizontal landscape painting. The horizon comes about halfway up the composition, and is lined with hazy mountains and clouds in the deep distance. Close examination slowly reveals miniscule birds tucked into the crimson-red, golden yellow, and deep, sage-green leaves of the trees to either side of the painting. Closest to us, vine-covered, fallen tree trunks and mossy gray boulders line the bottom edge of the canvas. Beyond a trickling waterfall and small pool near the lower left corner, and tiny within the scale of the landscape, a group of three men and their dogs sit and recline around a blanket and a picnic basket, their rifles leaning against a tree nearby. The land sweeps down to a grassy meadow crossed by a meandering stream that winds into the distance, at the center of the painting. Touches of white and gray represent a flock of grazing sheep in the meadow. A low wooden bridge spans the stream to our right, and a few cows drink from the riverbank. Smoke rises from chimneys in a town lining the riverbank and shoreline beyond, and tiny white sails and steamboats dot the waterway. Light pours onto the scene with rays like a starburst from behind a lavender-gray cloud covering the sun, low in the sky. The artist signed the painting as if he had inscribed the flat top of a rock at the lower center of the landscape with his name, the title of the painting, and date: “Autumn – on the Hudson River, J.F Cropsey, London 1860.”

Jasper Francis Cropsey, Autumn - On the Hudson River, 1860, oil on canvas, Gift of the Avalon Foundation, 1963.9.1

Finding Awe: Jasper Frances Cropsey, Autumn - On the Hudson River

Focus: Collections

Interactive Workshop

Friday, October 25, 2024
2:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
West Building Main Floor Gallery 64

Talks
Guided Tours
Workshops
In-person
Registration Required

Workshop Series: Finding Awe

We all could use a little more awe in our lives—come find it in the museum! In this series of interactive workshops, we’ll meditate on awe in our lives and in art. Join us for a pause from your daily routine, to breathe deeply and look mindfully at a single work of art. You’ll be invited to look closely, wonder, and share your own awe experiences. We hope you’ll leave with some “awe practices,” tools for cultivating an awe mindset in your daily life.

Session 1: Jasper Francis Cropsey, Autumn—On the Hudson River

Take an “awe walk” through a panoramic landscape, practice slowing down and activating your senses to the present moment. Explore transcendentalist philosophy and its relationship to awe.

This program is grounded in the National Gallery’s longstanding commitment to slow looking and offers new “awe practices” drawn from the research of Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology at the University of California-Berkeley, director of The Greater Good Science Center, and author of Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life (2023). Research shows that experiences of awe help support mental and physical wellbeing, open us up to greater creativity and deeper empathy, and connect us to our shared humanity. The National Gallery and UC-Berkeley are collaborating on what awe might look like in art museums.

Ages 18 and up. Led by senior educator Nathalie Ryan. Questions? Email [email protected]