See the Work
Where to experience Hudson River School's works in person, and resources to learn more
The Oxbow, 1836
Permanent Collections
Institutions holding Hudson River School's original works, plus the public-domain archive these images are drawn from.
The works in this archive come from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art. All are in the public domain.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York City
Holds The Oxbow, Heart of the Andes, The Titan's Goblet, The Beeches and many Kensett, Gifford and Durand works, plus Durand's engravings; a CC0 source for this archive.
Learn MoreNational Gallery of Art
Washington, D.C.
Holds Cole's second set of The Voyage of Life, Church's Niagara and El Rio de Luz, Inness's Lackawanna Valley and luminist works by Lane and Heade; a CC0 source for this archive.
Learn MoreCleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, Ohio
Holds Church's Twilight in the Wilderness, Cole's View of Schroon Mountain and Gifford's 1859 White Mountains sketchbook; a CC0 source for this archive.
Learn MoreCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Bentonville, Arkansas
Home of Durand's Kindred Spirits (1849), the double portrait of Cole and William Cullen Bryant, acquired in 2005.
Learn MoreThomas Cole National Historic Site
Catskill, New York
Cole's home and studios at Cedar Grove, preserved as a museum devoted to the founder of the Hudson River School.
Learn MoreMajor Exhibitions
Notable retrospectives and exhibitions of Hudson River School's work.
The Heart of the Andes
Tenth Street Studio Building, New York
Church's single-picture exhibition of his South American panorama (April 29 - May 23, 1859), which drew large paying crowds and toured until 1861.
American Light: The Luminist Movement, 1850-1875
National Gallery of Art, Washington
The exhibition that brought luminism - Lane, Heade, Kensett, Gifford and Church - to wide public attention.
American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Described at the time as the first full-scale exhibition of the school in more than forty years, gathering many of its finest and most famous landscapes.
Thomas Cole's Journey: Atlantic Crossings
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The National Gallery, London
Curated by Elizabeth Kornhauser and Tim Barringer, the first exhibition to present Cole as an international figure, marking the bicentennial of his 1818 emigration.
Books & Films About Hudson River School
Essential resources for understanding Hudson River School's life and work.
Essential Reading
An influential study of how American painters and writers understood nature, religion and national identity, central to the modern understanding of the Hudson River School and luminism.
The first biography of Cole, by his friend and pastor, drawing extensively on the painter's letters and journals; first published in 1853 as The Course of Empire, Voyage of Life, and Other Pictures of Thomas Cole, and reissued under this title in 1964.
Films & Other Resources
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's landmark catalogue accompanying the 1987-88 exhibition that restored the school to critical prominence, with essays and entries on the major painters.
Catalogue of the Met and National Gallery, London, exhibition presenting Cole as a transatlantic artist shaped by Turner, Constable and Claude.
The National Gallery of Art's catalogue on luminism, covering Lane, Heade, Kensett, Gifford and Church.
Cole's founding statement of the value of American wilderness, published in the American Monthly Magazine.
A series of letters to a young painter published in The Crayon, setting out the practice of close study from nature.
Online Resources
Explore the Archive
Browse 385 Hudson River School works from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art.
View All Works