During the first half of the 19th century, Thomas Cole bound nature and civilization together through the imaginative lens of his artwork and writings. In 1836, the same year that Cole unveiled The Oxbow to the public eye, he published his “Essay on American Scenery.” It was this essay, along with his larger body of works, that drew the eyes of many to the true meaning and weight of American landscapes. The Oxbow, with its dramatic split between the stormy cloud-shadowed wilderness and the sun-drenched, cultivated valley gave his argument in a way that no essay alone could achieve. The sublime aspects of nature are at the heart of this work and carry a weight much larger than the scenery itself. As Cole plants the seed, this theme carries far beyond Cole alone. The Oxbow greatly influenced other painters who really pick up on the sublime, and portray the American identity through landscape paintings.
For Cole, and those who followed him, the American landscape was not simply scenery. The great power and grandeur of the sublime wilderness sets up a stark contrast between the cultivation that comes with civilization. This exhibition gathers six works by Cole and the painters whom he influenced as the vast sublime nature is explored and the American Identity is portrayed through other landscape paintings. This collection answers the question of how Cole’s works influenced the views and paintings of later artists as they picked up on the sublime, and the greater portrayal of the American identity that results. Beginning with another painting from Cole, The Course of Empire: Desolation sets up the theme through a scene and civilization that far predates that of America, an ancient empire.
The Course of Empire: Desolation
Thomas Cole
1836
Oil on canvas
New-York Historical Society, New York, NY
The Course of Empire: Desolation, part of a broader collection of Cole's, sets up the relationship of nature and civilization for our exhibit, before the entrance of distinctly American scenes. Scholars like Roque and others emphasize the fact that Reed, a friend of Cole, actually encourages Thomas to take a step away from this collection to paint The Oxbow. With The Course of Empire actively in the works for Cole, we can see his foundation for The Oxbow and its themes. This piece offers arguably the starkest statement from Cole about the relationship of nature and civilization, with the sublime at the forefront, serving as a great starting point for the exhibition. The overgrown foliage has begun to overtake the long lost remains of a man made empire. The larger chronological story that this snapshot depicts is seen in the full The Course of Empire collection. The viewer feels the full weight of the sublime wilderness – not as an obstacle to be cleared, but as an enduring and powerful force.
View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm - The Oxbow
Thomas Cole
1836
Oil on canvas
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
The Oxbow, central to this exhibition, and arguably one of the most influential works of Cole’s to that of his followers, serves as our source. Standing before it, the viewer occupies a position perched atop Mount Holyoke. Entangled in the dark wilderness, the viewer looks over the tame sunlit valley below. The diagonal divide central to the composition sets up the stark contrast between the wild and the cultivated, while additionally defining the American identity of the time. Similar to The Course of Empire: Desolation, this piece further emphasizes the enduring nature of the wilderness, despite civilization's attempted claim. In contrast, this piece has no lasting man made structural elements, rather the American civilization is more a taming of the wilderness. The sublime is seemingly inescapable here, as the viewer feels, just like Cole, entangled standing in front of the large canvas.
The Beeches
Asher Brown Durand
1845
Oil on canvas
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Asher Brown Durand, a part of the Hudson River School, and follower of Cole continues the portrayal of the sublime. Durand credits Cole with great contributions to American Landscape painting, but feels the need to advance even further, as Kevin Avery emphasizes. The Beeches serves as a painted rebuttal for exactly the critics of American landscapes that Cole is attacking in his Essay on American Scenery. It is here that Durand applies Cole’s heavy portrayal of the wilderness in a much more calm and intimate manner. The wilderness is still dark and sublime, but much softer. The shepherd and sheep in the distance are visual reminders of the delicately beautiful nature of American scenery. It is distinctly American, not European, yet is of no less value or majesty. Rather than placed on top of the stormy mountain, the viewer is fully immersed in the lofty canopy and dense forest. The scene is overtaking, yet smooth and reverential.
Heart of the Andes
Frederic Edwin Church
1859
Oil on canvas
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
A pupil of Thomas Cole and key representative of the Hudson River School, Frederic Edwin Church had an eye for drawing the world, as Cole once noted. Heart of the Andes is a full measure of what he learned from Cole and how he grew upon these lessons. This painting takes the viewer to the western edge of South America, expanding the exhibition's geographical reach and scope of the American Identity. Stretching to 10 feet wide, this canvas immerses the viewer in the midst of the scene's extreme botanical detail. The sublime landscape here opens the viewers scope of American Identity to a broader Western frame. The diagonal split in the composition draws from The Oxbow along with the figure in the bottom left quadrant. This figure adds human scale, similar to Cole’s technique, emphasizing the sheer scale of the natural world. Church takes Cole’s statements and extends them to further emphasize the sublime on a broader stage.
Among the Sierra Nevada, California
Albert Bierstadt
1868
Oil on canvas
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Well accepted by his audiences, Bierstadt was a master of capturing American landscapes on canvas. His body of work, spanning across the frontiers and journeying through the national parks, display the untouched exceptional landscapes of America. While European and eastern scenes were grand, they pale in comparison to the untouched expanse of the western scenes like Among the Sierra Nevada, California. Church brings the exhibition down to South America, while Bierstadt pulls the viewer back north, this time scaling further west. The sublime nature in this landscape represents the untamed wild that once described the entire continent. It is scenes like this that bring the sublime back to a distinctly American scene, and caused Bierstadt’s audiences to take great pride in their national identity. There is a value contrast along with a diagonally split composition similar to The Oxbow, yet the viewer is far less entangled. Positioned in the valley below, the viewer here is dwarfed by the looming mountains and cascading light above, rather than looking from on high.
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
Thomas Moran
1893-1901
Oil on canvas
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
The predominance of nature as emphasized by Cole in his writings is on full display in the scene in The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Moran depicts the untouched wilderness of Yellowstone, much as Bierstadt did in Among the Sierra Nevada, California. Cole consistently roots the American Identity in the predominance of nature. In contrast, Eastern landscapes have long since been overtaken and even destroyed. The untouched grandeur of the sublime depicted in each of this painting, and present across the continent in the 19th century, is quite different from that of Eastern landscapes. Positioned in the Canyon, looking up the rock to the waterfall and sky above, the viewer will notice no man-made structures. The Course of Empire shows the outlasting nature of the wild over everything human built. Cole knew that the uncultivated sublimity of the American wilderness is precisely what made America unique. He was proud of it, and through his works, began to preserve this as others picked up on the seed he planted. It was through Moran’s art and efforts, inspired by Cole, that led to Yellowstone becoming the first national park in 1872. Cole’s landscape paintings directed the course of the century, and along with others like Moran, has preserved the American identity.
References
Avery, Kevin J. “Asher Brown Durand (1796–1886) - the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Metmuseum.org, October 2009. https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/asher-brown-durand-1796-1886.
Avery, Kevin J.“Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900) - the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Metmuseum.org, August 2009. https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/frederic-edwin-church-1826-1900.
Cantrell, Megan. “Thomas ‘Yellowstone’ Moran: Influencing Change with Art.” National Parks Conservation Association, July 18, 2014. https://www.npca.org/articles/376-thomas-yellowstone-moran-influencing-change-with-art.
Cole, Thomas. “Essay on American Scenery,” January 1836. https://thomascole.org/wp-content/uploads/Essay-on-American-Scenery.pdf.
Roque, Oswaldo Rodriguez. ““The Oxbow” by Thomas Cole: Iconography of an American Landscape Painting.” Metropolitan Museum Journal 17 (1982): 63–73. https://doi.org/10.2307/1512787.
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