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Summary of Luminism

Just before the outbreak of the Civil War, a handful of landscape painters, instead of painting monumental, dramatic scenes of American wilderness, began painting on a smaller, quieter scale. The Luminist style had much in common with the Transcendentalist writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, which advocated that one immerse oneself in nature in order to know oneself and the divine. While the artists did not cohere as a unified movement, they did share stylistic tendencies. Marked by a certain rendering of light as a uniform glow that infuses the entire scene, Luminist paintings reveal no brushstrokes of the artist, thus maintaining a silent, almost impersonal, surface. The particularly American style has continued to influence contemporary landscape painting.

Key Ideas & Accomplishments

• While partly influenced by Romanticism, Luminist paintings do not tend to depict nature as grand and imposing, nor do they strive to convey a sense of spectacular, awe-inspiring sublimity. Instead, Luminist paintings with their smaller size evoke a quiet spirituality based on closely observed natural phenomena, especially the quality of light.
• Luminist light is particularly distinct. It is often cool and hard, almost palpable. The painters use slight tonal modulations, and not brushstrokes, to create the effect of radiant light.
• Luminist compositions are very ordered, emphasizing the horizontal expanse with a deep spatial recession. The surfaces are precisely rendered, leaving no hint of brushstrokes. This clarity of the picture plane facilitates the viewer's communion with the natural scene presented and lends the scene a certain silence.

Artworks and Artists of Luminism

Progression of Art

List by date of birth of historically recognized American fine artists

For artists born 1900 and after, see List of American artists 1900 and after.

This is a list by date of birth of historically recognized American fine artists known for the creation of artworks that are primarily visual in nature, including traditional media such as painting, sculpture, photography, and printmaking.

Born before 1800

• John White (c. 1540–c. 1606), artist-illustrator, surveyor
• Jacob Gerritse Strycker (1615–1687), artist, possibly of the Rembrandt studios
• Thomas Smith (died c. 1691), painter
• John Smybert (1688–1751), painter
• Robert Feke (ca. 1705/1707–1750), painter
• Joseph Badger (c. 1707/8–1765), painter
• Jeremiah Theus (1716–1774), painter
• Patience Wright (1725–1786), sculptor
• John Hesselius (1728–1778), painter
• John Singleton Copley (c. 1738–1815), painter
• Benjamin West (1738–1820), painter
• Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827), painter
• Henry Benbridge (1743–1812), painter
• James Peale (1749–1831), painter
• Ralph Earl (1751–1801), painter
• Gilbert Charles Stuart (1755–1828), painter
• William Rush (1756–1833), sculptor
• John Trumbull (1756–1843), painter
• Mather Brown (1761–1831), painter
• James Earl (1761–1796), painter
• Edward Savage (1761–1817), painter
• John Brewster Jr. (1766–1854), painter
• Ruth Henshaw Bascom (1772–1848), folk art portraitist
• William Jennys (1774–1859), primitive portrait painter
• Raphaelle Peale (1774–1825), painter
• Cephas Thompson (1775–1856), portrait painter
• Jacob Eichholtz (1776–1842), portrait painter
• John Vanderlyn (1776–1852), painter
• Rembrandt Peale (1778–1860), painter
• Washington Allston (1779–1843), painter
• Edward Hicks (1780–1849), painter
• John Wesley Jarvis (c. 1781–1839), painter
• Thomas Sully (1783–1872), painter
• Solomon Willard (1783–1861), stone carver
• Bass Otis (1784–1861), painter
• Rubens Peale (1784–1865), painter
• John James Audubon (1785–1851), painter of birds and natu

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