The Hudson River School Art Trail is a project to map the painting sites of the artists Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School, Frederic Church, one of the most accomplished painters of the movement, and their contemporaries including Asher B. Durand, Sanford Gifford and Jasper Cropsey. This website includes the following resources to guide you on your actual or virtual journey on the Trail.
Wear comfortable shoes, open your eyes and prepare to be inspired.
The "Trail Views" section of this website takes you on a virtual tour of the painting sites, comparing several paintings by Hudson River School artists with photographs of the same views as they appear today. The majority of views appear remarkably similar to the 19th-century paintings, having been protected by their inclusion in the Catskill Forest Preserve. Often, several artists painted the same view, enabling a comparison of the artists' styles and choices. Other views are now vastly different from their 19th-century appearance, giving the viewer a sense of how our landscape has been altered by human activity during the last 150 years.
The "Map & Directions" section of this website gives you the tools you need to visit the Trail sites, which are located in the Hudson Valley within 15 miles of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site and the Olana State Historic Site. Some of the stops are easy to get to by car, while others can be reached only on foot and range from an easy walk to a fairly strenuous hike. From this website you can download pages with maps, directions, and reproductions of the images, which are formatted for easy printing on 8 1/2 x 11 sheets.
A full-color brochure is now available. It includes a map, driving and walking directions, and illustrations of the paintings to use as a comparison with today's actual views. The brochure can be found in the Cedar Grove visitor center during regular hours of operation, or in the Olana visitor center during their regular hours of operation. Please come to Cedar Grove or Olana to pick up your free copy. A pdf of the brochure can be viewed on this website, although the size of the design makes printing impractical.
A new guidebook with complete information including maps and directions is now available for purchase from our online shop, as well as from our on-site visitor center during regular hours of operation. With over 50 full-color illustrations and an introduction by Kevin Avery, Associate Curator of American Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this new guidebook takes you to the magnificent places that inspired America’s first great landscape painters. Included are beautiful reproductions of many well-known paintings of the Hudson River School, alongside photographs of the same views today, enabling side-by-side comparisons. The guidebook can be purchased in advance of your trip to both inspire and assist you with planning your visit.
Throughout the year, the Thomas Cole Historic Site hosts events related to the Trail including guest speakers and guided walks. To see a schedule of current events, click here. If you would like advance notification about these events, please join our mailing list.
The Hudson River School Art Trail is a work in progress with new developments underway. The "More Information" section of this website describes how the Trail came into being, and gives a preview of future developments.
