Romanticism in AmericaCole, The Oxbow• Founder of the Hudson River School of landscape painting• Painted as reply to Captain Basil Hall’s book Travels in North

America, 1829, in which he alleged that America was indifferent to its natural blessings

• Also alleged that American painters were incompetent and could not capture American scenery

• To Cole, America possesses the sublime and the beautiful in its landscape

• Wildness of landscape on left compared to the domesticated landscape on right

• Cole is seated with an easel between both landscapes, looking at us• Left: contorted trunk, receding storm, wild mountains, impenetrable

forest• Right: cultivated, orderly, man taming nature, but remaining in

harmony with her• Oxbow as a counterstatement to Hall’s book

Romanticism in America

Church, Twilight in the Wilderness• Cole’s only pupil and his successor • Awe-inspiring view of the sun setting over a majestic

landscape• No trace of humanity• Idealistic and comforting view• Affirmation of the divine in nature• Strong horizontals interrupted by verticals and diagonals• Color used as spectacle• Great detail in leaves of trees and feathery clouds• Is it a symbol of the oncoming Civil War?

Romantic Architecture

• John Nash (1752-1835)• Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860)• Charles Garnier (1825-98)

Revival Architecture

Nash, Royal Pavilion, Brighton• Seaside resort for prince regent, later King George IV• Islamic domes, minarets and screens• Onion domes and finials• Underlying the exotic façade is a cast iron skeleton• Interior: palm-tree columns in cast iron

Royal Pavilion at Brighton, John Nash, 1815

Revival ArchitectureBarry and Pugin, Houses of Parliament,

London• Old Houses of Parliament burned to the

ground in 1834• Competition held in 1835 to rebuild the

Houses• Only styles allowed in the competition

were Elizabethan Tudor and Gothic• 97 entries, this was the winning entry• Ground plan is cruciform• Two main axes meet in an octagonal

central lobby: House of Commons meets the House of Lords

• Barry was a classicist, a regularity of the rhythms of the façade

• Pugin was a medievalist: towers and decorative elements

Va s t offic e c om ple x: 1,100 room s , 100 s ta irc a s e s , 2 m ile s o f c orridors , 8 a c re s

Ha rm oniz e d with oth e r m e die va l bu ild ing s ne a rby, like We s tm ins te r Abbe y

B ig B e n, th e c loc k towe r, is like a m e die va l villa g e c loc k

P la c e m e nt o f a de ta c h e d towe r is Ita lia n in ins p ira tion

Revival Architecture

Garnier, The Opera, ParisExterior:• Rich polychrome façade of

colored marbles• Domed auditorium• Huge fly space for stage behind

that• Elaborate side entrance for the

Emperor• Subscribers had a pendant

entrance• General ticket holders entered

front

Interior:• Iron used, but not in exposed places• Mirrors on columns flicker with gas

light, allowing ladies to check their hair before entering the great staircase

• Auditorium made for the staircase, rather than the staircase for the auditorium

• Auditorium as anti-climax• Garnier said the staircase IS the

opera• Lower steps swell gently outward• Porch of the caryatids frames the

finest seats

Beginnings of Modern ArchitectureLabrouste, Sainte-Genevieve

Library, Paris• Combination of load bearing

masonry and iron construction• Arches and columns support roof

independent of masonry walls• Iron construction balanced by itself• Substitute a cast-iron shaft for a

column of granite• Narrow, rectangular ground plan

wedged onto a long constricted site• 1838, first library in Paris to be

opened at night, illuminated with gas lamps

• Had to be constructed of fire-proof materials

Exterior:• Continuous range of arches on tall,

narrow piers• Exterior can be thought of as a

cover for a book• First consistently exposed iron

skeleton in a monumental public building

• Arches on interior reflect arches on exterior

• Repetitive and mechanical decoration on surface

• Façade composed of 810 names of authors in chronological order from Moses to Berzelous, 1848, a Swedish chemist

Beginnings of Modern Architecture

Labrouste, Sainte-Genevieve Library, Paris (continued)• Central name is Byzantine writer Psellus symbolizing the meeting of

East and West• Façade as a monumental card catalogue, or Table of Contents• Main portal: two flat Tuscan columns, surmounted by lamps that

symbolize opening at night for the convenience of students and workers

• Lamps around door look like bookmarksInterior:• Single spine of cast iron down center• Spatially open, evenly lit in daytime and well-ventilated• Interior and exterior compliment each other

Beginnings of Modern Architecture

Paxton, Crystal Palace, London• Competition to build a World’s Fair in

London to be held in 1851• Buildings to be temporary, economical,

simple, and capable of rapid construction

• 245 designs submitted, none suitable• Paxton formulated this design in eight

days, fulfilling all requirements• Built in 39 weeks of prefabricated

materials• 1851 feet long, 18 acres• Free of internal walls• 7,200 cast iron and wrought iron

columns• 900,000 square feet of sheet glass

Hollow c a s t iron c olum ns a c t a s dra in p ipe s

G la s s c urta in wa lls

P orta l bra c ing to c ounte ra c t la te ra l forc e s of th e wind

P a xton’s e xpe rie nc e in g re e nh ous e s ins p ire d th e de s ig n

B urne d in 1936