Hudson River School: Masterworks from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

by Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Amy Ellis, Maureen Miesmer

A breathtaking selection of works from the largest and finest collection of Hudson River paintings in the world

Hudson River School paintings are among America’s most admired and well-loved artworks. Such artists as Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, and Albert Bierstadt left a powerful legacy to American art, embodying in their epic works the reverence for nature and the national idealism that prevailed during the middle of the nineteenth century. This book features fifty-seven major Hudson River School paintings from the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, recognized as the most extensive and finest in the world. Gorgeously and amply illustrated, the book includes paintings by all the major figures of the Hudson River School. Each work is beautifully reproduced in full color and is accompanied by a concise description of its significance and historical background. The book also includes artists’ biographies and a brief introduction to American nineteenth-century landscape painting and the Wadsworth Atheneum’s unique role in collecting Hudson River pictures.

Published in association with the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

Exhibition Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville (September 23, 2005 - January 8, 2006)

Genres: Art, Art History

180 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 2003

About the author

Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser is Krieble Curator of American Painting and Sculpture at the Wadsworth Atheneum.

Reviews

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book based on the holdings of the Wadsworth Museum, whose collection was started by Daniel Wadsworth who knew or was related to many of the early artists of this movement. The book has a well-written narrative about the history of the Hudson River School movement, using the clear and lovely pictorial reproductions in the book as illustration of points made and fitting the movement within the history of the early republic and how it reflected people's thinking at the time.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an incredible show I saw in Tacoma, WA in 2005 - I'm so excited to finally find the catalogue! It's a great read on how important landscape painting was to America and its growth.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great resource for anyone who like the Hudson River School.

[B. Steinberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very educational and informative.