In the third quarter of the nineteenth century some of the most beautiful and compelling of all American paintings were executed in a style now called luminism, for its depiction of the radiant effects of light and atmosphere. Many were by Frederic Edwin Church, perhaps the crucial artist of the period. In this lavishly illustrated book, John Wilmerding and eight other scholars explore the nature and implications of the luminist movement and its relationship to American political and cultural history. This work was first published in 1980 by the National Gallery of Art in conjunction with a major exhibition under the same title.