Since the first part of the nineteenth century, Colorado, with its vast prairies and impressive mountains, has been a mecca for artists. So pervasive and popular were images of the region that some art historians have dubbed those who portrayed Colorado's peaks as the "Rocky Mountain School."<BR>This volume of Western Passages celebrates a diverse group of painters and sculptors who found special allegiance to the Rockies and to the human history of Colorado. Many who ventured into Colorado in the 1800s were seeking inspiration in the land. Colorado attracted such masters of landscape painting as Thomas Moran, Albert Bierstadt, and Thomas Worthington Whittredge. Essays in this volume discuss the aesthetic contributions of the latter two artists, who turned western imagery into a national expression.