- Artist
- Thomas Cole
- Year
- 1838
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 132.5 x 193.5 x 13 cm (52 3/16 x 76 3/16 x 5 1/8 in.); Unframed: 99.8 x 160.6 cm (39 5/16 x 63 1/4 in.)
Storm clouds tear away from the dark peak of Schroon Mountain in the Adirondacks, revealing the valley in patches of golden sunlight. Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School, painted this grand wilderness view in 1838, three years after settling in the Catskills. The blasted tree in the foreground, the drama of weather and the untamed slopes speak of nature as sublime — beautiful, immense and indifferent to the tiny human presence beside the water.