The Mountain Ford
1846
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
28 1/4 x 40 1/16 in. (71.8 x 101.8 cm)
Classification
Painting
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Maria DeWitt Jesup, from the collection of her husband, Morris K. Jesup, 1914
Accession Number
15.30.63
Tags
Art Historical Context
Thomas Cole's *The Mountain Ford* (184), an oil on canvas measuring 28¼ × 40⅛ inches, captures the majestic wilderness of the American landscape during the mid-19th century. As a founding figure of the Hudson River School, Cole pioneered a distinctly American Romantic style, emphasizing the sublime beauty and spiritual power of nature. This work, housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Wing, depicts a serene yet dramatic scene of a river ford nestled among towering mountains, lush trees, and figures with horses, evoking the era's sense of exploration and national pride. Cole's masterful us...
About the Artist
Thomas Cole · 1801–1848
Thomas Cole (1801–1848) was an English-born American painter who founded the Hudson River School, the first major American art movement, and became the most influential landscape painter in nineteenth-century American art. Born in Bolton, Lancashire, England, he emigrated with his family to the United States in 1818, settling first in Ohio before moving to Philadelphia and then New York, where he ...