Love Those Luminists (Metropolitan Museum Favorites, 6)
Post published:March 10, 2016
Monet and other Impressionists who worked in France beginning in the 1860s were famous for their obsession with depicting transient effects of light. In my opinion, the Luminists obsessed over light in a much more attractive way – although they get less press, partly because in their own time, their style had no name. The term “Luminist” was coined by a 20th century art historian to describe a group of American painters with similar styles who emerged in the 1850s, as a subcategory of the Hudson River School.
Like painters of the Hudson River School, the Luminists favored landscapes executed in dazzling detail, but they added a distinctive type of light that reminds me of the glowing light in some of J.M.W. Turner’s paintings. Being in a room full of Luminist paintings (such as the Metropolitan Museum’s Galleries 760 and 761) is both soothing and uplifting. Yes, of course you are allowed to stand in the middle of the room and just enjoy the ambiance.
Here’s a selection of Luminist paintings at the MMA, in chronological order by date of the painting.
Frederic Edwin Church, Heart of the Andes, 1859. 66 1/8 x 119 1/2″. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Margaret E. Dows, 1909. Photo: MetMuseum.orgFitz Henry Lane, Stage Fort across Gloucester Harbor, 1862. 38 x 60 in. (96.5 x 152.4 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Rogers and Fletcher Funds, Erving and Joyce Wolf Fund, Raymond J. Horowitz Gift, Bequest of Richard De Wolfe Brixey, by exchange, and John Osgood and Elizabeth Amis Cameron Blanchard Memorial Fund, 1978. Photo: MetMuseum.orgSanford Robinson Gifford, A Gorge in the Mountains (Kauterskill Clove), 1862. 48 x 39 7/8 in. (121.9 x 101.3 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Maria DeWitt Jesup, from the collection of her husband, Morris K. Jesup, 1914. Photo: MetMuseum.orgJohn Frederick Kensett, Twilight on the Sound, Darien, Connecticut, 1872. 11 1/2 x 24 1/2 in. (29.2 x 62.2 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Thomas Kensett, 1874. Photo: MetMuseum.orgAlbert Bierstadt, Sunrise on the Matterhorn, after 1875. 58 1/2 x 42 5/8 in. (148.6 x 108.3 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Karl W. Koeniger, 1966. Photo: MetMuseum.org
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The Luminists came up on my radar when I was gathering notes on New York ca. 1840-70 for my upcoming lecture / walking tour on the early years of Central Park. If you’re interested in the tour, email me (durantedianne@gmail.com): I’ll add you to my mailing list, so you’ll be among the first to hear when I’ve set the date.
The MMA is making many of their older publications available free, to read online or download in PDF format. Their survey of American artists born 1816-1845 is here: densely informative text, although the illustrations are, sadly, in black and white.
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