Art Institute of Chicago

New England Scenery

Thomas Cole (American, born England, 1801–1848)

Date

1839

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

New England

Department

Arts of the Americas

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Although Thomas Cole is best known for his scenes of the American wilderness, he also rendered pastoral vistas of cultivated landscapes. This work depicts New Hampshire’s White Mountains, an area that Cole traveled to and painted on numerous occasions, as did other 19th-century landscape artists. The prominent church spire at middle distance emphasizes the role of religion in agrarian society and the glow of the low sun expresses a sense of optimism for a rural America. The painting conveys an ideal that was increasingly far from reality, however, as the United States was then being transformed by rapid urbanization and the Industrial Revolution.

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