The Oxbow



The Oxbow (View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm). Thomas Cole. 1836 C.E. Oil on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

  • Hudson River School Painting. Founder of American Landscape painting; landscape ranked very low by the academies in Europe. 
  • Painting not respected in American society; didn’t aim for anything extravagant, no grand, mythological scenes; Americans wanted portraits, or landscapes, or views. 
  • Five or six feet wide: point Cole wanted to make. Landscape painting was considered lowly; made it in a campus comparable to highly renowned paintings. 
  • He tries to use landscapes to say something big, convey a greater meaning; this is seen in his other works. Ambitious; Represents transformation, metamorphosis.
  • It’s about America and what it’ll become. On the right, we see a storm-ravaged landscape; broken trees, rain the background, lightning bolts; birds are frantic. 
  • Lush landscapes represents Eden: America as a new Eden. 
  • On the left side is Americans settling on the virgin landscape; cultivation. Ties into Manifest Destiny: Americans were meant to claim this. Hebrew letters on hill in background: if read from the sky’s POV, it reads “almighty.” 
  • God’s plan, God has blessed America. 
  • Settlement means peacefulness and tranquility. 
  • Artist himself in the virgin side, painting as he looks at the viewer; next to him is his art supplies, a parasol and a chair. His portfolio reads his name on it; acts as a signature. 
  • Christian viewpoint. Need to entertain; something everyday Americans can relate to. 
  • American painter born in England; the elevation of landscape painting to a point of national pride. 
  • Landscape paintings, in contrast, were often though more imitative than innovative. 
  • Cole was able to take the American landscape and imbue it with a moral message, as was often found in history paintings. 
  • Cole used the land as a way to say something important about the United States. 
  • Left side elicits feelings of danger and even fear; wild, unruly, and untamed. 
  • View of Massachusetts; Americans destroyed a wilderness with industry 


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