Cole feared for the American landscape as his country expanded westward.
Romanticism in the United States
“Luminism” sounds like a subject at Hogwarts, but it actually describes landscape paintings like this one.
Fitz Henry Lane, Owl’s Head, Penobscot Bay, Maine
Adam and Eve have just been evicted from Paradise, and the grass was definitely greener on the other side.
Thomas Cole, Expulsion from the Garden of Eden
Can we call a landscape painting “emo”? This brooding, melancholy canvas definitely tempts us to.
Washington Allston, Elijah in the Desert
Church was the child star of nineteenth-century landscape painting; these astonishing canvases show us why.
Frederic Edwin Church, Niagara and Heart of ...
This gigantic canvas is one of the most famous in the history of American art, but it wasn’t made in the USA.
Emanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware
This dignified portrait of a Native leader belies the cruel treatment he endured at the time of its painting.
George Catlin, The White Cloud, Head Chief ...
Not content to merely paint the land, Cole elevated the landscape to approach the status of historical painting.