luminism

luminism , American art movement of the 19th cent. Luminism was an outgrowth of the Hudson River school . In its concern for capturing the effects of light and atmosphere it is sometimes linked to impressionism . Its practitioners included Frederick E. Church (in his early career), Fitz Hugh Lane , John F. Kensett , Sanford R. Gifford , and Martin Johnson Heade . They painted majestic landscapes and seascapes bathed in the mystical light of a pristine sky with an emphasis on Nature's grand scale.

Bibliography: See B. Novak, Nature and Culture: American Landscape and Painting, 1825-1875 (1980).

Luminism. Term coined by John Baur, director of the Whitney Museum in New York, to describe an aspect of mid-19th-century American landscape painting in which the study of light was paramount. He defined Luminism as ‘a polished and meticulous realism in which there is no sign of brushwork and no trace of impressionism, the atmospheric effects being achieved by infinitely careful gradations of tone, by the most exact study of the relative clarity of near and far objects, and by a precise rendering of the variations in texture and color produced by direct or reflected rays’ (‘American Luminism’, Perspectives USA, Autumn 1954). At their most characteristic, Luminist paintings are concerned chiefly with the depiction of water and sky. Leading Luminists included Bingham and Durand, and aspects of the trend can be seen in the work of the Hudson River School. By about 1880 Luminism was becoming outmoded by French influences.

In the field of 20th-century art the term ‘luminism’ has also been used in completely different senses: as a name for Neo-Impressionism in Belgium and as a term applied to works of art incorporating electric light (see Light Art).

luminism Art style followed by a group of 19th-century US painters. The luminists were principally concerned with the depiction of light and atmospheric effects. They used careful gradations of tone to achieve these, so that no brushwork was apparent. The leading figures were George Caleb Bingham, Asher Durand, and members of the Hudson River School.