Romanticism in the United States took up themes of nature and spirituality in uniquely American ways.
c. 1800-1860
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Albert Bierstadt, Hetch Hetchy Valley, California
Captured here in paint, this grand Californian landscape would soon disappear under water.
Thomas Cole, The Hunter’s Return
Cole feared for the American landscape as his country expanded westward.
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, 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, Elijah in the Desert
Can we call a landscape painting “emo”? This brooding, melancholy canvas definitely tempts us to.
Frederic Edwin Church, Niagara and Heart of the Andes
Church was the child star of nineteenth-century landscape painting; these astonishing canvases show us why.
Emanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware
This gigantic canvas is one of the most famous in the history of American art, but it wasn’t made in the USA.
George Catlin, The White Cloud, Head Chief of the Iowas
This dignified portrait of a Native leader belies the cruel treatment he endured at the time of its painting.
Thomas Cole, The Oxbow
Not content to merely paint the land, Cole elevated the landscape to approach the status of historical painting.