Highlights: Luminist Horizons -- The Art and Collection of James A. Suydam by Staff from Antiques & Fine Art magazine

Luminism, characterized by the effects of light on landscapes and the absence of visible brushstrokes, has tended to be described as an esthetic of solitary isolation, but this exhibit reveals that it was a gregarious experience for collector and painter James Suydam (1819-1865) and the artists in his circle: John F. Kensett, Asher B. Durand, Frederic Edwin Church, Sanford R. Gifford, Jasper Cropsey, and many others. Accompanied by close friends, such as Kensett, Gifford, and Worthington Whittredge, Suydam visited popular sites in the Hudson River Valley, the Mt. Washington region, and along the Rhode Island coast, interpreting their well-known vistas in his unique style. Suydam's collection, bequeathed in its entirety to the National Academy in 1865, documents the many American and European influences on Suydam and his peers as they explored qualities of light and atmosphere in the landscape. This is the first ever retrospective of Suydam's work.