Hudson River school

The Hudson River school was a 19th century American group of landscape paintings related to romanticism. The paintings depict the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area. (School in this usage is a group of people whose thought, work, or style demonstrates a common thread, rather than a learning institution.)

Hudson River school paintings reflect three themes of America in the 19th century: discovery, exploration, and settlement. The paintings also depict the American landscape as a pastoral setting, where human beings and nature coexist peacefully. Their later works are often described as luminism.

The artist Thomas Cole is acknowledged as the first Hudson River school painter. His collaborator and friend, Asher Durand, was a prominent figure in the school as well.

In 2005, the world's largest collection of Hudson River school landscapes can be seen at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut. Some of the most notable works in Atheneum's collection are 13 landscapes by Thomas Cole, and 11 by Hartford native Frederick Edwin Church, both of whom were personal friends of the museum's founder, Daniel Wadsworth.

Hudson River school artists

• Thomas Cole
• Asher Durand
• Jasper Francis Cropsey
• Thomas Doughty
• Albert Bierstadt
• George Inness
• Thomas Moran
• John Frederick Kensett
• Frederick Edwin Church.
• Sanford Gifford.