1825 -1848 · Hudson, Catskills and New England

Connecticut Loop, Kaaterskill, Catskills and White Mountains make up a founding geography where Cole confronts spectacular territory, agriculture, tourism and wilderness.

Thomas Cole's American landscapes appear as the United States seeks images capable of expressing its cultural identity. The Hudson Valley and the Catskills become its main territory. In Kaaterskill Falls, water, rocks and forest make up a spectacular site already frequented by travelers. The Connecticut Loop, known as The Oxbow, contrasts dark and disordered nature in the foreground with a cultivated, lit and gridded valley; the work does not simply contrast wildness and civilization, it puts their border up for debate. The work does not simply contrast between wildness and civilization, it puts their border into debate. The White Mountains combine passes, roads and the memory of local disasters. The Catskill Mountain House testifies emerging tourism and the desire to contemplate the territory from a high point. Cole admires American nature, but he is also concerned about deforestation and an expansion that is rapidly transforming the place. His landscapes carry this tension: national celebration, personal experience and environmental warning coexist in the same panorama. The "American Landscapes of Thomas Cole" selection notably compares View of the Encoche Pass of the White Mountains and The Connecticut Loop. His reading favors the atmosphere.

Cole's America is neither intact nor entirely conquered: road, field and forest still compete for the shape of the landscape.