Robert Hughes - American Visions - Episode 3 (part 4/5)

00:10:31
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6QlgBKWoHg

Summary

TLDRLe documentaire explore comment les artistes américains du XIXe siècle ont été influencés par l'essor des chemins de fer et le mythe de l'Ouest sauvage. Les traines à vapeur sont devenus des symboles du progrès, et les peintres comme Albert Bierstadt et Thomas Moran ont créé des paysages grandioses qui ont façonné la perception publique. Moran, accompagné du photographe William Henry Jackson, a même joué un rôle crucial dans la promotion de Yellowstone en tant que premier parc national américain grâce à leurs œuvres. L'art de paysage de cette époque symbolisait un contrôle territorial et une idéation de la nature que l'industrie ferroviaire exploitait pour attirer le tourisme. Vers la fin du siècle, le goût pour ces vastes représentations a décliné au profit de vues plus mûres et subtiles de la nature.

Takeaways

  • 🚂 Les chemins de fer ont transformé l'Amérique et inspiré de nombreux artistes.
  • 🎨 Albert Bierstadt a joué un rôle majeur dans la création de paysages américains idéalisés.
  • 🖼️ Thomas Moran a aidé à faire de Yellowstone le premier parc national grâce à ses peintures.
  • 📸 La collaboration entre Moran et le photographe Jackson a renforcé la crédibilité des explorations artistiques.
  • 🌄 Les paysages de l'Ouest sont devenus des symboles d'un contrôle américain sur le territoire.
  • 🏞️ Yellowstone est devenu un emblème de la nature sauvage protégée en Amérique.
  • 🌌 L'art de paysage au 19e siècle a idéalisé la nature pour le public urbain.
  • 📉 Par la fin du siècle, ce style « épique » a perdu de sa popularité.
  • 🛤️ Le développement ferroviaire a également façonné le mythe du Far West.
  • 👨‍🎨 Les artistes ont contribué à rendre ces paysages célèbres et accessibles.

Timeline

  • 00:00:00 - 00:10:31

    Les artistes du mouvement Luministe n'ont pas cherché le spectaculaire mais ont utilisé ce qu'ils avaient à leur disposition. Fitz Hugh Lane, par exemple, a peint des scènes côtières de Gloucester, Massachussetts, avec ses marées et ses navires. Cependant, ces images semblaient irréelles à la plupart des Américains qui vivaient l'essor industriel, symbolisé par le chemin de fer. Alors que le train à vapeur représentait le progrès américain, il devenait un sujet central pour les artistes qui, comme Albert Bierstadt, partaient à l'Ouest pour capturer et parfois mythifier le paysage. Bierstadt, un immigrant allemand, se positionnait comme un promoteur infatigable de ces vastes paysages de l'Ouest, bien que ses œuvres embrassaient plus l'imaginaire que le réalisme. La peinture n'était pas un concept pour les Amérindiens qui considéraient la terre comme faisant partie d'un tout sacré, vivant en harmonie avec elle plutôt qu'en essayant de la dominer.

Mind Map

Mind Map

Frequently Asked Question

  • Quel est le rôle des chemins de fer dans la peinture de paysages américains ?

    Les chemins de fer ont symbolisé le progrès américain et ont permis aux artistes d'explorer et de peindre les paysages de l'ouest américain, influençant ainsi l'illustration et la perception du paysage.

  • Qui était Albert Bierstadt ?

    Albert Bierstadt était un artiste germano-américain connu pour ses représentations ambitieuses de paysages de l'ouest américain.

  • Comment Moran et Jackson ont-ils contribué à la création de Yellowstone en tant que parc national ?

    Thomas Moran et William Henry Jackson ont produit des images frappantes de Yellowstone qui ont aidé à convaincre le Congrès de créer le premier parc national américain.

  • Quelle est l'importance de la peinture de Moran sur le Grand Canyon de Yellowstone ?

    La peinture de Moran a été la première œuvre de paysage américain achetée par le gouvernement américain, devenant un symbole important du tourisme dans la nature sauvage.

  • Comment les peintures de paysages ont-elles évolué avec l'industrialisation ?

    Avec l'industrialisation, les paysages sont devenus des symboles de progrès et d'expansion, souvent idéalisés pour répondre aux attentes du public.

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  • 00:00:05
    the Luminess didn't go searching for
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    spectacle they used whoppers on their
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    doorstep in Fitz Hugh lanes case a
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    narrow slice of coast around Gloucester
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    Massachusetts with its tidal Bay as its
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    rocks and shipping but to most Americans
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    such images would have looked like
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    dreams in a backwater
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    a new industrial America was rising from
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    the ashes of the Civil War driven by the
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    railroad
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    in the 1850s America had just 9,000
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    miles of track by the end of the 1870s
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    it had 19 3,000
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    railroads crossed the consulate
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    they opened the West and artists who
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    rode them along with the land
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    speculators con men and gamblers they
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    too were ready to mine the landscape
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    the steam train becomes the symbol of
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    American Progress its headlamp is the
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    star of empire
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    it moves irresistible through glorious
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    landscapes
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    the old Conestoga wagon lumbers along
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    well the new train hurtles to its
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    destination
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    dropping their images of settlers wagons
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    Currier and Ives took the railroad
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    engine as the triumph of enterprise its
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    smoke blinds the American Indians
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    blotting them out painters went west to
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    satisfy the growing curiosity back east
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    the images of the distant frontier which
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    had become feverish through tall stories
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    and journalists hype foremost among them
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    was Albert Bierstadt an immigrant from
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    Germany who made a three decade career
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    out of grandiose Western landscape their
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    state was a tireless self-promoter and
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    he claimed to capture the West as it
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    really was this he declared was a
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    minutely faithful account of the daily
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    life of the Shoshone Indians in the
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    Rocky Mountains
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    maybe so but the whole landscape is
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    invented and as for the Indians
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    Bierstadt had plans for them he
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    announced that one day in the foreground
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    of his painting a city populated by our
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    descendants may rise and in its art
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    galleries this picture may eventually
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    find its resting place Bierstadt's
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    Rockies only look wild actually they
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    promised complete control of territory
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    the thought behind them was the exact
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    opposite of the beliefs that Indians
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    held about their own relationship to the
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    man
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    the Native American view is that this
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    place is very much a part of a great
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    sacred totality
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    my people who wear the the hunters did
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    not paint landscapes in fact very few
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    tribes painted landscapes that's very
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    foreign idea you know this was a part of
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    the great Holi and you lived here and
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    you perhaps emulated portions of the
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    environment for example the eagle
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    feather headdress placed upon the head
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    of an elected leader the eagle flies
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    high in the heavens near the Sun it's
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    believed because it flies that high that
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    it too has a sacred potency related to
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    the Sun consequently the eagle feather
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    is placed you know in a particular
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    arrangement become the Rays of the Sun
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    coming out of the man's head and he's
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    told to be as a father to your people
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    just as the son is a father to this
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    universe so we see a slightly different
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    interpretation of nature in that it
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    becomes the living forces that control
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    us and we therefore pay homage to those
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    potencies by adorning ourselves with
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    those essences or those symbols
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    the railroad built the West they created
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    the myth of the West and fixed it in
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    popular fantasy their promoters had to
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    find new destinations in fact they
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    created them nowhere is this plainer
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    than in the story of Yellowstone
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    from the white world only a few trappers
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    and mountain men had ever visited this
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    weird thermal landscape they returned
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    with stories of a place where hell
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    bubble de Satan's cauldron
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    they're stories of geysers and rivers of
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    boiling water were too while to be
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    believed they're huge
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    in 1871 an official US Geological Survey
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    team led by Ferdinand Haydn set out for
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    Yellowstone Hayden knew he would need
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    pictures not just words to describe it
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    so he took along a 34 year old artist
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    Thomas Moran Moran's trip was
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    underwritten by the Northern Pacific
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    Railroad which guessed that his images
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    just might create a new tourist
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    destination back east
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    Moran's watercolors thrilled their
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    audience rather as the first photos from
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    the Moon warder century later
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    along with Moran Hayden had invited a
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    former stagecoach driver turned
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    photographer William Henry Jackson this
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    was the first time in America that a
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    photographer and an artist could work
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    together on the same project
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    Jackson provided the objective record of
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    this world of Wonders to a public which
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    thought the camera couldn't lie his
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    photographs didn't undercut Moran
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    sketches they confirmed them
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    Maran often help Jackson find scenes for
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    his camera and then he painted them
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    himself
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    Hayden used their work to persuade
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    Congress that Yellowstone should be
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    protected forever he wanted to create
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    America's first national park it was a
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    view of the canyon Falls that
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    established Moran and the public art it
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    was the summation of his trip his
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    all-out gamble with public taste the big
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    picture as he called it he painted it
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    when he got back
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    and Congress loved
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    Thomas Moran's enormous picture of the
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    Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone was the
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    first American landscape by an American
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    artist to be bought by the American
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    government it cost ten thousand dollars
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    or about 80 cents a square inch would
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    have been cheaper price the price they
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    put it in the capitol where so many
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    effigies of flesh-and-blood heroes
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    already had and this too in its way was
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    a painting of a hero the landscapers
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    hero limbs of rock belly of water hair
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    of trees it offered the panoramic thrill
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    that no water color can give and the
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    density of substance that no photograph
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    can rival Moran didn't try for literal
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    transcription of nature Jackson's
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    photography had shown him what the
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    camera couldn't do and Turner whose
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    pictures he had seen in England and
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    adored had taught him what painting
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    could suggest
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    in 1872 the Year Moran's canvas was
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    finished the Yellowstone area became a
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    national park
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    Moran's painting didn't force the bill
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    through Congress but it did become the
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    prime symbol of wilderness tourism and
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    it did wonders for the cash flow of the
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    Northern Pacific Railroad after
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    Yellowstone came other national parks
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    but while the public taste for these
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    wilderness museums grew and grew
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    the popularity of epic landscape
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    declined by the 1890s the likes of Moran
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    and Church the scene was the remnants of
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    a mode of landscape painting that was
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    too big too naive too much or round
Tags
  • Chemin de fer
  • Amérique
  • Paysage
  • Peinture
  • Progrès
  • Tourisme
  • Parc national
  • Yellowstone
  • Albert Bierstadt
  • Thomas Moran