Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

What Is American Light?byJ. Leonard BensonFirst of all, “American Light” is the title of one of the most importantexhibitions (Spring, 1980) of mid-19th century American painting ever to beassembled. Appropriately enough, the setting for this was a suite of rooms inthe National Gallery in Washington D.C., a city which has, in its own right,rich resources for the study of American art. The subtitle of the exhibitionhelps to clarify the main title: “The Luminist Movement, 1850–1875.”The sumptuous scale of the show and its book-length, well-illustratedcatalog 1 with contributions by leading historians of American art offereddelectation for those who knew what to expect and must have broughtadmiring surprise to many visitors who did not.The term “luminism” is a relatively recent invention (1948) and hasonly in the last few years become somewhat popular. It designates a majordevelopment—probably the major development—within the stream of landscapepainting generally known as the Hudson River School. The workingout of the concept of “light consciousness” behind the term has been a largeconcern of the present generation of mature scholars.In attempting to assess the experience these paintings gave me, Idistinguished two levels: a formal art historical and a “metaphysical” or,more specifically, an Anthroposophical one. The following thoughts concernparticularly the latter, but some mixing of the two is necessary. Indeed, thethoughtful installation of the exhibit itself proposed that the visual arts ofthe mid-19th century, represented particularly by F.H. Land, J.F. Kensett,M.J. Heade and F.E. Church, have a direct relationship to great Americanthinkers of the same time, such as Emerson and Thoreau, quotations fromwhom were lettered above the carefully arranged canvasses (usually alarge one flanked by two smaller ones).92