Knights of the Brush

the long version

"This work of cultural criticism analyzes the masterpieces of the Hudson River School, America's golden age of landscape painting that flourished from almost 1825 to 1860. Iconic works by Frederic Edwin Church, Thomas Cole, Jasper Francis Cropsey, Asher Brown Durand, and others are examined in relation to the religious, moral, and aesthetic sensibility that underlies their work. For these painters there was a moral purpose in being an artist; art was a sacred obligation. Perhaps not since the Middle Ages had a school of art infused such religious certitude into works of art."--BOOK JACKET.