"Hudson River School paintings are among America's most admired and well-loved artworks. Such artists as Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, Albert Bierstadt, and Martin Johnson Heade 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 finest and most extensive in the world." "Amply illustrated, the book includes paintings by all of 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 significant 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."--Jacket.