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 19th century. This book features 57 major Hudson River School paintings from the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut. Amply illustrated, the book includes paintings by all the major figures of the Hudson River School. Each work is beautifully reproduced in full colour 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 19th-century landscape painting and the Wadsworth Atheneum's unique role in collecting Hudson River pictures.