Distant View of Niagra Falls

Distant View of Niagara Falls 

                                  

Thomas Cole was an artist and founder of the Hudson River School. Cole is best known for his paintings of the American landscape. One of his most famous paintings is called Distant View of Niagara Falls. This painting epitomized the American spirit and grandeur power of American landscape and its romanticism. Cole sketched many versions of Niagara Falls from different viewpoints at different times to observe the sky and other perspectives. He observed that, "the clouds in such a sky are very romantically shaped. They fly in strata one above another the underside of each cloud is darker and bolder than the upper... The clouds in the highest part are the warmest into their shades, but their lights perfectly white."

The painting is on display at The Art Institute of Chicago. I have been there a few times and have probably walked past the painting before, but it never caught my eye. Now the next time I go to the Institute, I will know all about the painting. If I were to see it before learning about transcendentalism I would not have given the painting much thought. But now I would be able to study the painting and see that the two Native Americans are very small in size compared to what is around them, meaning that humans are insignificant in the grand scheme of nature. I would also observe how the Native Americans are capturing the sight of Niagara Falls as most of the land in the north was turning into factories.