This idyllic setting was painted by Thomas Cole in 1843. One of the founding members of the Hudson River School, Thomas Cole was both a painter and a sculptor working within the artistic styles of romanticism and naturalism. In a time when the Hudson was viewed as an artery of progress and economic prosperity, Cole offered an alternative view of man and nature. This painting depicts man coexisting harmoniously with nature, with very little signs of industrialization or agriculture. The man in foreground is framed by the immensity of the Catskills, emphasizing their magnitude as well as their pacifying qualities. Time stands still in many of Cole's work (as well as other Hudson painters), and these paintings serve to place man within a time and space where he seems to exist without intruding on nature. Cole emotes the tranquility and balance that occurs in nature, with man respectfully enjoying this silence. The vast landscape also fulfills the question of who can enjoy this land. There is a couple people interjected within the painting showing the relation between this immense space and a sparsely populated area. I feel like Thomas Cole was almost advertising this bucolic landscape for certain people.
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