Critique Of Artist Thomas Cole's The Oxbow

In the year 1836, artist Thomas Cole created his masterpiece, “The Oxbow” with oil on canvas. His painting is one of many that showcase the transition in American Art History to one that idealized American Romanticism. Up until just a few years before this piece was painted, Americans sought to be like Europe and focused their art on Ancient Ruins and ladies with perfect faces. During this time America was so new and fresh yet settlers just burned and plowed through all vegetation. But they would soon recognize the beauty and value of their land and artists like Thomas Cole and some of his students would be there to capture that moment. Cole’s painting depicts “a view from Mt. Holyoke, Northhampton, Massachusettes after a thunderstorm” (khan …show more content…
As mentioned above, the painting is very realistic so it comes as no surprise that Cole exercised optical color or reproduced the colors as he saw them in nature. Through the lingering dark clouds and the glistening land the painting explicitly displays the land after a thunderstorm. Many critics believe that by doing this he captures the pureness of the land and the endless opportunity settlers have to take and run with. In addition to the aspect of a fresh start the colors on can easily recognize the dominance of the color green in the foreground of the painting. More often than not green symbolizes life. One may be inclined to say that the large size and the prominent location of the green vegetation symbolizes the life of the land that the Americans were finally beginning to be aware of and take pride in. Finally, when studying the painting many viewers will recognize that Cole used dark ominous colors in the sky and in the hills behind the river. These dark colors represent the vast lack of knowledge during this time period. Many Americans did not know what their next day would look like; Yet they were able to find God in everything and through religion find their