The Sublime, the Picturesque, and the Hudson River School

Salvator Rosa, The Crucifiction of Polycrates, c. 1663-64

Claude Lorrain, Landscape with Merchants, c. 1635

Frederic Church, Cotopaxi

Thomas Cole, Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire

Thomas Cole, The Oxbow (larger image)

Asher Durand, Kindred Spirits

Why We Think Nature Is Beautiful
, a lecture by Gene Hargrove