One rarely sees such "sibling" views exhibited together, but in Reading we find an abundance of such groupings, allowing us to see more clearly how intensely Hudson River painters responded to their inspirations.
The other remarkable feature of this show is its origin. All 116 paintings, by 72 artists, come from a single private collection. One is amazed to learn that these paintings represent only about a third of the total collection, which has been formed over a half-century.
The Pennsylvania collector prefers to remain anonymous, but over three decades he has been admirably generous in letting the public savor his remarkable achievement. This traveling show, organized by the Westmoreland Museum of American Art near Pittsburgh, represents the third such exhibition drawn from his holdings.
The second, "All That Is Glorious Around Us," traveled to the Allentown Art Museum in late 2002. The current show also was presented at the Everhart Museum in Scranton in 2007.
The Westmoreland's director, Judith Hansen O'Toole, curated "Different Views" and wrote an accompanying book that discusses the theme in detail. She not only presents contrasting interpretations of particular subjects by the same artist, but has also brought together views of popular Hudson River subjects such as Lake George, Mount Washington, and Niagara Falls by different artists.
Keep in mind that, in contrast to the way earlier artists treated landscape, as allegory or narrative context, the Hudson River painters usually were responding to nature as they experienced it.
"Different Views" allows us to appreciate this shift in extended perspective.
