Peindre la terre américaine pour construire la nation : l'École du Sublime

This chapter intends to show how nineteenth century landscape painters participated in the nation building efforts common to politicians and writers. By displaying the previously unheard of beauties of the continent, the artists of the Sublime School of painting erased the inferiority complex of Ame...

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Main Author: Bernadette Rigal-Cellard
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses Universitaires du Midi 2019-05-01
Series:Caliban: French Journal of English Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/caliban/6073
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author Bernadette Rigal-Cellard
author_facet Bernadette Rigal-Cellard
author_sort Bernadette Rigal-Cellard
collection DOAJ
description This chapter intends to show how nineteenth century landscape painters participated in the nation building efforts common to politicians and writers. By displaying the previously unheard of beauties of the continent, the artists of the Sublime School of painting erased the inferiority complex of Americans vis à vis European landscapes and culture in general. These painters started with the views of the Hudson Valley in the East, then following the campaigns of exploration into the West, they shuddered in front of the magnificence of the Rockies Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, the fabulous canyons that God had shaped and preserved in their pristine wilderness for His Chosen People. Now the American Nation was coming of age. She could brag to the world, and mostly to Europe, that its cathedrals of stone, shaped by the very hand of God, were far superior to those of the old continent, laboriously built by the hand of man. Their gigantic size and their virginal purity drowned also the puny mountains of the old continent now doomed to decadence.
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spelling doaj.art-26e8f8252af941c29e495d21139445de2024-02-14T09:26:24ZengPresses Universitaires du MidiCaliban: French Journal of English Studies2425-62502431-17662019-05-0161859810.4000/caliban.6073Peindre la terre américaine pour construire la nation : l'École du SublimeBernadette Rigal-CellardThis chapter intends to show how nineteenth century landscape painters participated in the nation building efforts common to politicians and writers. By displaying the previously unheard of beauties of the continent, the artists of the Sublime School of painting erased the inferiority complex of Americans vis à vis European landscapes and culture in general. These painters started with the views of the Hudson Valley in the East, then following the campaigns of exploration into the West, they shuddered in front of the magnificence of the Rockies Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, the fabulous canyons that God had shaped and preserved in their pristine wilderness for His Chosen People. Now the American Nation was coming of age. She could brag to the world, and mostly to Europe, that its cathedrals of stone, shaped by the very hand of God, were far superior to those of the old continent, laboriously built by the hand of man. Their gigantic size and their virginal purity drowned also the puny mountains of the old continent now doomed to decadence.https://journals.openedition.org/caliban/6073Nation buildingLandscape paintingWildernessHudson Valley SchoolThe SublimeHumboldt
spellingShingle Bernadette Rigal-Cellard
Peindre la terre américaine pour construire la nation : l'École du Sublime
Caliban: French Journal of English Studies
Nation building
Landscape painting
Wilderness
Hudson Valley School
The Sublime
Humboldt
title Peindre la terre américaine pour construire la nation : l'École du Sublime
title_full Peindre la terre américaine pour construire la nation : l'École du Sublime
title_fullStr Peindre la terre américaine pour construire la nation : l'École du Sublime
title_full_unstemmed Peindre la terre américaine pour construire la nation : l'École du Sublime
title_short Peindre la terre américaine pour construire la nation : l'École du Sublime
title_sort peindre la terre americaine pour construire la nation l ecole du sublime
topic Nation building
Landscape painting
Wilderness
Hudson Valley School
The Sublime
Humboldt
url https://journals.openedition.org/caliban/6073
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