Unravelling the Stark Message in this Landscape Masterpiece
Shifting fortunes told by a classic work of art
One of the things that art can do is serve as a space where ideas are inscribed and explored. It has the power to portray human activity as either beautiful or destructive — and it is this contrast that the English-American artist Thomas Cole presented so well in this work.
On the surface, Cole depicted a natural wonder: the winding course of a river across a low-lying valley, with the dramatic addition of changing weather conditions, so giving a sense of the artist having “captured” a fleeting moment.
Yet spend some time looking at the image and a great deal more is revealed: about time, human progress, and the shifting fortunes of nature under man’s dominion. Art historians have long debated its precise interpretation. Let’s take a closer look…
Two sides of the landscape
The painting takes as its subject an oxbow — a tight U-shaped bend in a river — as it weaves its way around the Connecticut River Valley. The high vantage point from Mount Holyoke gives us a sweeping panorama…
