Some historians differentiate between pure Luminism and Hudson River School landscape painting: in the former, the landscape — more centered in the New England area — is more peaceful, more anecdotal, with delicate tonal gradations characterized by a crystalline light that seems to emanate from the canvas, in neat brushstrokes that seem to recreate the surface of a mirror and in compositions in which the excess of detail is unreal due to its straightness and geometrism, resulting in an idealization of nature. Thus understood, Luminism would encompass Heade, Lane, Kensett, Suydam and Silva. Hudson River landscape painting, on the other hand, would have a more cosmic vision and a predilection for a wilder and more grandiloquent nature, with more dramatic visual effects, as seen in the work of Cole, Durand, Church, Bierstadt, Cropsey and Bingham. It must be said, however, that neither group ever accepted these labels.
