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The Mountain Ford

Thomas Cole American
1846
Not on view
Painted two years before Cole’s early death, this picture appears to be the record of an entirely imagined vision, with an implied symbolic meaning. The mountain in the center, with light at its summit and shadow at its base, dwarfs and dominates the forest around it. Civilization has laid no mark on pure nature. Just at the edge of a murky body of water, however, a horseman appears on a hesitating white mount, pausing momentarily before plunging in to ford the dark and frightening depths. This confrontation of man and wilderness draws on a long allegorical tradition of the lonely rider journeying through an awesome world.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Mountain Ford
  • Artist: Thomas Cole (American, Lancashire 1801–1848 Catskill, New York)
  • Date: 1846
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 28 1/4 x 40 1/16 in. (71.8 x 101.8 cm)
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Maria DeWitt Jesup, from the collection of her husband, Morris K. Jesup, 1914
  • Object Number: 15.30.63
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

More Artwork

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Wilderness Landscape Study
Thomas Cole
ca. 1828–41
Shipwreck, Thomas Cole American, Graphite on off-white wove paper, American
Shipwreck
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Landscape with Tower (from McGuire Scrapbook), Thomas Cole American, Graphite on off-white wove paper, American
Landscape with Tower (from McGuire Scrapbook)
Thomas Cole
Clouds, Thomas Cole American, Oil on paper laid down on canvas, American
Clouds
Thomas Cole
ca. 1838
Sketch for View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm (The Oxbow), Thomas Cole American, Oil and pencil on composition board, American
Sketch for View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm (The Oxbow)
Thomas Cole
1836

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