A mid-19th century American landscape painting movement centered in [[New York]], celebrated for its luminous, detailed depictions of the [[Hudson River Valley]], [[Catskill Mountains]], and the American wilderness. Key figures include [[Thomas Cole]]—whose [[The Oxbow - Thomas Cole (1836)|The Oxbow]] contrasts wilderness and civilization—[[Frederic Edwin Church]], whose [[Heart of the Andes - Frederic Edwin Church (1859)|Heart of the Andes]] extends the school's vision to grand tropical landscapes, and [[Albert Bierstadt]], whose [[The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak - Albert Bierstadt (1863)|The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak]] celebrates the American West. Rooted in [[Romanticism]]'s reverence for nature and the sublime, it expressed a distinctly American identity and a sense of spiritual wonder in the untamed landscape.