by Thomas Cole (1801  ~ 1848)

Description:

This landscape painting portrays many features associated with the American wilderness in the mid-nineteenth century. The mountain appears after being cleansed by a storm, which is still raging in the right background, portraying nature as mercurial and energized. The pale blue above the mountain and the sunlit autumn foliage in the middle distance show nature in its beautiful aspect. However, Cole has contrasted the beautiful with the sublime in the forms of the ominous clouds and torrents still active to the right. Another sublime detail is the blasted tree, apparently struck by lightening, in the lower left corner. Also present but barely visible in the foreground, just right of center, are the heads of two Indians in feather headdresses. Their tiny size and concealment in the trees is intentional. Cole reflects a notion, popular in his day, of Indians as part of nature rather than above it; they are one with the passing storm. Ironically, due to a combination of death and removal, Indians no longer occupied the New York wilderness at the time Cole painted this scene.

湯瑪斯．柯爾 詩如山一景 (1836)

這幅風景畫描繪了許多讓人聯想到美國十九世紀中期的荒野的特色。山巒在暴風雨的洗滌後又露出臉來，但這同時那暴風雨卻在背景的右方發威，刻劃出大自然的善變與活力。中景部份在山巒上方的淺藍天空與陽光照耀下的秋葉，則顯現大自然優美的一面。然而柯爾同時也利用畫中籠罩右方的烏雲與傾盆而下的豪雨這種莊嚴美來與優美加以對照。另一個具有莊嚴美的細節，則是左下角那棵顯然曾受雷擊的枯樹。另外，同樣出現在前景，但卻不那麼顯眼的，則是在中央右方，兩個帶著羽毛頭飾的印第安人的頭。他們微小半隱在樹叢中的身影，是特意的安排。柯爾畫中所反應出的，是他那時期的一個普遍現象：他們視印第安人為自然的一部份，而非駕馭其上。只是諷刺的是，當柯爾描繪此景時，印第安人已因為死亡與遷徙之故，不在紐約州的荒野活動了。