View from Mount Holyoke after a Thunderstorm (The Oxbow)

Cole stands us on a hilltop above the Connecticut River just as a storm moves off. On the left, the wilderness is still dark: a broken tree, wet rocks, rain sweeping across the hills. On the right, the sun has come out on a cultivated valley of fields and farms. Between them the river bends in its great loop, the oxbow. The painting has often been read as a question America was asking itself about land and how to treat it. Look closely near the bottom center and you will find the painter himself, small at his easel, turning to look back at us. He seems to be asking which way we would go.

Look closely

1. Find the painter at his easel, a tiny figure near the bottom of the picture.
2. Trace the line where the storm ends and the sunlight begins.
3. Follow the river around the bend with your eye. Where does it lead?

While you sit

The storm has just passed. You are on the hilltop with the painter, and there is no hurry to go down.

Your seat in the galleries: a split ash log on two stones, with moss in the bark’s creases.