Thomas Cole's The Oxbow, split between a dark storm and bright farms around the Connecticut River.
Human Verified
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Access image Public domain

View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm ... The Oxbow

by Thomas Cole

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
130.8 x 193 cm (51 1/2 x 76 inches)
Year
1836
Availability
In a museum collection, not for sale
Collection
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Accession Number
08.228
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Russell Sage, 1908
Copyright
Public domain, museum image marked public domain
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Check this work in the holding collection's own record

Description

A river bend seen from Mount Holyoke, with broken trees and a dark storm on one side and sunlit farms on the other. Cole placed himself near the middle with a tiny easel.

Look Closer

Find Cole and his easel just below the center. Then follow the river into the distance. The wild slope is close enough to touch, while the farms sit across the bend in bright, ordered blocks.

How It Was Made, and What Changed

Cole sketched the view on site, then shaped the full painting in his studio. The Metropolitan Museum of Art points to the sharp divide between stormy wilderness and settled farmland. The artist stands between those two worlds and looks straight back at us.