Romantic Painting

This Painting is called the "Oxbow". It was done by Thomas Cole. It is a romantic painting showing the Connecticut River near Northampton. The painting has two contradicting sides to it. It starts on the left side with a dark shadow accompanied by rugged broken trees with a violent rain cloud above it. Then on the right side it becomes a sun-filled rived accompanied my man-kind. It is 130.8 cm x 193 cm.

Thomas Cole was born in England than came to America with his family when he was about 17. His is well-known for his landscape paintings such as the Oxford. He worked out of a studio in Catskill, New York. He died at the age of 47 in Catskill. The fourth highest peak in Catskill is now named the "Thomas Cole House" in his honor.

Although Cole was known for his American landscape paintings, he produced thousands of sketches for different types of subjects. You can find a large amount of his sketches at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Cole worked as an architecture for a short amount of time. It is something that helped inspire him as an artist. He designed the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio.