The Hudson River School was a group of painters, led by Thomas Cole, who painted awesomely Romantic images of America's wilderness, in the Hudson River Valley and also in the newly opened West. The use of light effects, to dramatically portray such elements as mist and sunsets, developed into a subspecialty known as Luminism. In addition to Cole, the best-known practioners of this style were Albert Bierstadt and Frederic Edwin Church.