Sketch for View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm (The Oxbow)
For Cole, sketching outdoors was essential to the close study of nature and an indispensable tool in the creation of a significant studio painting. For The Oxbow (on view nearby), Cole made a pencil drawing on site and later painted this small oil sketch in his studio as he worked to establish the composition, color balance, and internal rhythm of the scene. A squiggle of paint at the lower right appears almost human—perhaps a first suggestion of the artist’s presence in the landscape, as seen in his self-portrait in the final canvas.
Artwork Details
- Title: Sketch for View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm (The Oxbow)
- Artist: Thomas Cole (American, Lancashire 1801–1848 Catskill, New York)
- Date: 1836
- Geography: Made in United States
- Culture: American
- Medium: Oil and pencil on composition board
- Dimensions: 5 1/2 x 9 3/8 in. (14 x 23.8 cm)
- Credit Line: Purchase, Gift of Mrs. Delancey Thorn Grant, in memory of her mother, Louise Floyd-Jones Thorn, by exchange and Friends of the American Wing Fund, 2014
- Object Number: 2014.59
- Curatorial Department: The American Wing
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