George Cooke’s “Tallulah Falls” stands out compared to the other pieces in the Georgia Museum of Art, because it is home grown and represents the state of Georgia. In fact, Tallulah Falls is only an hour drive North from the University of Georgia. His portrayal of the sunset combined with that of the liveliness in the trees creates a sense of cohesion around the motion of the water fall. Along with the balance of colors, Cooke also demonstrates a sense of balance between inanimate objects versus living things. This can be seen through the technique of strokes he uses throughout various parts of the painting. “Tallulah Falls” is by far one of the most attractive pieces at the Georgia Museum of Art; this attributes to the formal elements and principles of design portrayed in Cooke’s painting. Cooke’s use of line demonstrates the meaning of various aspects of the piece. Vertical lines are primarily used for the trees in the piece. Vertical…show more content… He began his career as a self-taught painter in Virginia. In 1826, he went to Europe, where he was exposed to “old masters of the Renaissance and baroque periods” (Keyes, 2003). This encouraged him to take up history and landscape painting. When he came back to the States, he travelled all over the south throughout the 1830s and 1840s. He painted portraits, landscapes, and townscapes. During this time, the primary focus of American art was on the issue and affairs of the Indians with the Americans. Cooke came back to North Georgia only a year after “The Trail of Tears.” This is crucial to the reason why Cooke came back to Georgia. His patrons, or the people who funded him, where the very aristocrats responsible for the ethnic cleansing of the Cherokee in Antebellum Georgia. Much of the landscape Cooke painted used to be home to the Cherokee. In fact, “Tallulah Falls” is one of Cooke’s most extraordinary pieces that survive from this time period
