The Hudson River School Art Trail connects you with the places in nature that Thomas Cole and the Hudson River School artists made famous in their 19th-century landscape paintings. Cole founded this nation’s first major art movement, now known as the Hudson River School, and advocated for the preservation of the American landscape as a national treasure.
Today, you can visit these magnificent views thanks to extensive preservation efforts.
Choose Your Destination
Discover the places in nature that inspired iconic 19th-century landscape paintings that now hang in major museums across the country.
The Hudson River School
America’s first major art movement, now known as the Hudson River School, has had a major influence on this nation’s appreciation of our natural environment. Thomas Cole’s early paintings of nature untouched by human development reinforced notions of America as a new Eden, for the first time equating American landscape with American identity. The movement was comprised of a group of over 100 artists working between 1825 and 1875.
Suggested Itineraries
Whether you have an afternoon or a week, there’s an itinerary for you.
The making of the
Hudson River
Art School Trail
