The Brutal Indifference by Thomas Cole
Thomas Cole did not paint The Notch of the White Mountains just to show off some pretty autumn leaves. He painted it because nature had just slaughtered an entire family and nobody seemed to care about the real lesson. It was 1839 and the memory of the devastating 1826 Willey family avalanche still hung heavy in the air. Cole took his oil paints to a massive forty by sixty-one inch canvas to capture that brutal truth. The American wilderness did not care about your homestead. It was vast and ancient and it would crush you without a second thought.
Cole painted tiny figures struggling against a towering mountain pass. He wanted to scream about human insignificance. He wanted to warn everyone about the arrogant march of progress. He left jagged tree stumps in the foreground as a brutal reminder. Civilization was creeping in and hacking the pristine landscape to pieces. It was an urgent plea wrapped in oil on canvas.
He exhibited the piece at the National Academy of Design in New York. The wealthy buyers strolled past and nodded at the dramatic lighting. They loved the rugged aesthetic. They completely missed the point. They did not see a warning about deforestation or the fragility of human life. They just saw a nice picture to hang above a fireplace. Cole tried to warn them that the land they were destroying would eventually destroy them back. They bought the painting and kept right on chopping down the trees.
References
Cole, Thomas. The Notch of the White Mountains. 1839. Oil on canvas.
Parry, Ellwood C. The Art of Thomas Cole. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1988.
Truettner, William H. and Alan Wallach. Thomas Cole Landscape into History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.