Formative period of nineteen-century American painting begins with attempts of romanticism through Wasington Allston's paintings. He began working on important landscape designs, later on developing even more by Thomas Cole. He was important for the establishment of Hudson River School that set the course of American landscape painting. Cole's followers continued to develop landscapes and also created a foundation for luminism that will mark 50s and 60s of the century. That luminism had a strong influence in American painting is visible in the fact that it was present not only in landscape painting, but also in genre painting through Sidney William Mount's and George Caleb Bingham's works. A version of American realism is found in the works of Thomas Eakins, while the style of Winslow Homer serves as a transition from realism to impressionist instances at the end of the century. Despite the complicated social and political situation that included the Civil War, Reconstruction and then again segregation, some African-American painters that made a mark throughout the century were Robert S. Duncanson, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Grafton Tyler Brown and Edward Mitchell Bannister. Their paintings communicate with European and American traditions, often sending a social message; to point to the injustice and difficult life of black population in the States even after the Civil War. That message is often sent in a very subtle manner.