This paper proposes Thomas Cole (1801-1848), not only painted the romanticized grandeur and the spiritual essence of the untamed American wilderness, but reflects the unfolding influence of literature, politics, and social issues of the past. Cole’s paintings provided portals for the colonial past and then connected the imagery of his paintings to the current turbulence of his present time period of the 1820s. Therefore, his landscape compositions introduces American literary subjects and settings, as well as man’s imprint forecasting the intrusion on nature, (Katz, R. G., 2013, p. 56). It is through Cole’s spiritual connection to the land and how he envisioned humanity’s imprint on the vast uncivilized landscape that is reflected in this paintings.…show more content… Cole is representing himself as the painter, a tiny figure in a vast landscape. This is what captured my attention, and the impression that this tiny figure foretells humanity’s imprint on nature. It is important to note when considering Cole’s paintings he was making a statement of the dynamic relationship between human expansions, the impact on nature and or possibly an allegory of the future encroachment of industrial civilization. As the layers of Thomas Cole’s short life is peeled away, there is another important element that requires consideration. According to Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, Cole’s view of the Connecticut River from Mount Holyoke as a subject for a painting antedates Cole’s sketch by some years (see note). However, this point, while very important, is beyond the focus of this…show more content… Cole’s use of atmospheric perspective embracing the vast landscape tends towards an allegorical reference to God though nature, the diminished strength of man in the larger scale of life. My first reaction to seeing Cole’s painting of The Oxbow, I could sense a reverence Cole had for the vast open space of the American landscape. He associated the belief in God’s immanence in nature with a view of America as the new Eden and the connection to his beliefs in God (The Metropolitan Museum (The MET) Catalogue, p. xxi). As noted in the Oxford English Dictionary landscape is defined as both a verb and a noun, signifying, not simply its multiple references in relating to and or its active and passive modes but more importantly the varying perceptions of landscape as an artistic, cultural, and religious
