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A dream of Italy: Black artists and travel in the nineteenth century
A dream of Italy: Black artists and travel in the nineteenth century

Created as the Civil War was coming to an end but at a time when all Americans were not yet equal citizens, this painting invokes an idealized landscape, with references to both past and present.

Science, religion, and politics, Church’s <i>Cotopaxi</i>
Science, religion, and politics, Church’s Cotopaxi

The natural world and political metaphor, Church's Cotopaxi

Frederic Edwin Church, <em>The Iceberg</em>
Frederic Edwin Church, The Iceberg

Revisiting a frozen sea, memory and science in the 19th century

Thomas Moran, <em>Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone</em>
Thomas Moran, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

The painting that inspired a National Park

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, <em>Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way</em>
Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way

Daniel Boone, Moses, and the western frontier: creating an American mythology

Thomas Cole, The Architect’s Dream
Thomas Cole, The Architect’s Dream

Cole, the great American landscape painter looks across the vast history of Western architecture

Albert Bierstadt, <em>Hetch Hetchy Valley, California</em>
Albert Bierstadt, Hetch Hetchy Valley, California

Captured here in paint, this grand Californian landscape would soon disappear under water.

Thomas Cole, <em>The Hunter’s Return</em>
Thomas Cole, The Hunter’s Return

Cole feared for the American landscape as his country expanded westward.

Fitz Henry Lane, <em>Owl’s Head, Penobscot Bay, Maine</em>
Fitz Henry Lane, Owl’s Head, Penobscot Bay, Maine

“Luminism” sounds like a subject at Hogwarts, but it actually describes landscape paintings like this one.

Thomas Cole, <em>Expulsion from the Garden of Eden</em>
Thomas Cole, Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

Adam and Eve have just been evicted from Paradise, and the grass was definitely greener on the other side.

Washington Allston, <em>Elijah in the Desert</em>
Washington Allston, Elijah in the Desert

Can we call a landscape painting “emo”? This brooding, melancholy canvas definitely tempts us to.

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