Luminism

Luminism means roughly, the painting of light and is applied specifically to the American landscape painters of the Hudson River school from about 1830–70

James Abbott McNeill Whistler
*Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea* (1871)
Tate

Many of the paintings produced by the Hudson River school were dominated by intense and often dramatic light effects.

In British art a form of luminism underlies James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s ‘Nocturnes’. The term is also sometimes applied to neo-impressionist paintings in which the divisionist technique leads to a marked all over luminosity.

Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.

Hudson River school

Hudson River school is the collective name given to a number of nineteenth century North American landscape painters who depicted scenes of natural beauty in areas that included the Hudson River Valley and the Catskill Mountains
Neo-impressionism

Neo-impressionism is the name given to the post-impressionist work of Georges Seurat, Paul Signac and their followers who, inspired by optical theory, painted using tiny adjacent dabs of primary colour to create the effect of light

Luminism

Related terms and concepts

Hudson River school

Neo-impressionism

Sign up to emails