The Romantic View of the Natural World

Items

• Photo of Alexis Nelson
  Photograph of Alexis Nelson
• Merced River, Yosemite Valley
  The Yosemite mountains nearly reach the sky in this painting. They are next to the Merced River, some of the mountains are covered by the clouds coming in. A forest with horses grazing near. By the river a group of indigenous people looking out; two boats are in the water with two people in each.
• Two Men Contemplating the Moon
  Two men are looking at the moon. The sky is purple and yellow from the light of the moon. Besides the men on the right a large tree with some of its roots exposed and a large rock next to it. In the distance there is a forest. A stump of a tree behind the men, looking as if it has been chopped down.
• The Much Resounding Sea
  The sea is active and the waves are crashing all around the shore of the beach. Some kind of man-made item is in the middle of the waves. The sky is dark and there seems as though some kind of storm is coming in or leaving.
• A View of the Mountain Pass Called the Notch of the White Mountains (Crawford Notch)
  The trees are changing colors and a warm tone is throughout the painting. A small pond to the left with a house behind it. A figure is riding a horse on a path towards the house. Two figures are waiting for them by the house, one is much smaller than the other. A carriage is leaving in a different direction than the one the figure is coming in on. While there is lush forest on all sides of the family, the clearing settled in is a result of clearcutting trees. Shown by the remains of tree stumps in all corners. The White Mountains are behind and a storm is rolling in.
• Moonlight on the Yare
  In the middle of the painting is a windmill and behind it is another. It sits on a lake that is marsh-like. There are big, crooked trees that give an ominous feel to the painting. The moon is full in the painting which giving a glow to everything. Tall grasses touch the lake.
• Mount Olympus from Larissa, Thessaly, Greece
  3 people are in the foreground looking off into the distance. Farther down the hill are cattle with wagons attached to them. A lake is in front of the people and in the far distance is Mount Olympus. Mount Olympus looks tall and grand and it is the farthest object in the distance.
• Inundated Ruins of a Monastery
  Victory of nature over man. The monastery in the drawing is flooded with water trees are growing where it is flooded. A cross that has been surrounded by the water is near. Different types of vegetation growing in the water and up the walls of the monastery. Nature is taking its land back from man.
• Waterfall at Terni
  A waterfall coming out from a man-made structure. A few smaller waterfalls are to the sides of the main one. Trees and shrubbery are around the waterfall. In the background there are mountains. The waterfall seems to be higher up since there is no ground visible in the painting.
• Waterfall at Mont-Dore
  A large waterfall is the main focal point of the painting. Up closer to the foreground, a large tree and next to it a man and a woman. Two goats are with the couple. Around the waterfall are a multitude of trees and greenery. In the far background the mountain's top looks into the scene.
• The Toilers of the Sea
  In this painting there is a sailboat all alone in the dark ocean. There is either a bright sun or moon in the sky. The ocean is dark and full of mystery but the waves seem to be calm. The title of the painting is based on Victor Hugo’s novel Les travailleurs de la mer. It is possible that this painting could illustrate several scenes in the novel.
• A Gorge in the Mountains (Kauterskill Clove)
  The main focus of the painting is the gorge, in the far distance a waterfall. In the foreground a tree on a rocky hill. Down in the gorge a lake and a house with smoke coming out of the chimney. In the background a mountain range. The entire painting is full of warm tones from the sun .
• The Beeches
  On both sides of the painting are beech and basswood trees. The sky has started to turn pink due to a sunrise or sunset. Along the path in the middle of the painting a sheep herder with his flock right behind him. The herder is walking towards a large water source.
• The Palisades
  A field with an abundance of shrubbery and thick collection of trees to the right. A house to the right said to be William S. Cochran’s. To the left a small huddle of cows laying in the grass. A group of people in the center right of the painting. In the distance there is the Hudson River with another land mass after the river.
• Approaching Thunder Storm
  A man is sitting and smoking a pipe looking out on to Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay. Next to him, a small white dog and some kind of pot. Out on the bay a small rowboat with a person in it and a sailboat farther out into the water. Few hills out in the distance and little greenery around the man on shore. Dark clouds rolling over the sky as if a storm is approaching.
• Whalers
  The front of a boat and her sails. The dark figure that is next to the boat is a whale. In front of the boat there is wreckage of another boat or some kind of rock. The rest of the painting is loose in its figures to represent how the ocean can be chaotic.
• An Arctic Summer: Boring Through the Pack in Melville Bay
  In the Arctic, on the northern coast of Greenland. The ship in the background of the painting is the Panther. They are looking for the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. A dark cloud is goes over the scene There is a giant glacier in the middle of the painting. A polar bear is walking away from the ship, escaping being hunted by the men on the ship. There is wreckage from a different ship near the polar bear.
• View on the Catskill- Early Autumn
  A mother and her baby in the lower left corner, the mother has picked some flowers and is bringing them back to her baby. There is a man watching two horses run away from him. An animal that had been shot in the right corner of the painting and the hunter is farther out looking at his kill. On the river there is a person rowing a boat. Where there are no people in this painting there are vast forests and a large mountain range behind.
• The Titan’s Goblet
  In Cole’s painting, the main focus is this huge goblet that towers over a city right below it. The goblet is full of water and sail boats sail in it. There are also ruins around the edge of the goblet. There are mountains in the background but do not dominate the composition unlike the goblet.
• The Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak
  This landscape painting shows the Shoshone tribe in the foreground. There are horses, dogs, teepees and tribal members interacting with one another. In the lower right corner of the painting a dead elk or deer is tied to a horse and a crowd of people gathers around a dead bear. A waterfall flows into the nearby lake. There are tall, trees near the figures. In the background are the Rocky Mountains; the peaks have snow on them. This painting is supposed to be an advertisement for the landscape for potential white settlers.
• Hearts of the Andes
  In the scene a waterfall flows into a body of water. On either side of the waterfall are trees with foliage all around. On the left side of the waterfall, there is a man-made path and next to the path is a cross that implies a grave or some sort of marking of a lost one. There are two people next to the gravestone, one figure sits and looks up at the cross. These figures are so small. In the background there is a mountain range and in the very back are mountains covered in snow.
• [Untitled]