The Oxbow

Thomas Cole painted the view from the summit of Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts, looking down at a bend in the Connecticut River. The composition splits diagonally along the river. The upper-left half is untouched American wilderness under a black storm sky. The lower-right half is cultivated New England farmland under sunshine. Cole was arguing, without an argument: the American West was choosing between two futures. The debate was already happening in 1836. In the middle distance, a tiny self-portrait of the painter with his easel is visible, sitting on the ridge between the two. Now at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York @metmuseum