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Ruins, river bends and a giant goblet

Thomas Cole

Thomas Cole, an American landscape painter of the Hudson River School, in the 1830s. An ivy-hung ruined arch rises over the plain near Tivoli, and from Mount Holyoke a storm moves off as the river loops through sunny fields, once in a quick sketch and once in full. By the Catskill, a woman in pink holds up wild flowers under tall trees. A cloud piles up white and pink over a strip of land, and a giant stone goblet holds a lake with sailboats, spilling over its green rim.

As a puzzle

Start in the foreground, where there is most to hold: the ivy on the Tivoli arch, the broken tree at the edge of the Oxbow, the tall trees by the Catskill, the rocks below the goblet. Then follow the river’s loop out across the fields. The skies are wide and soft, the storm side of the Oxbow is grey on grey, and Clouds is nearly all sky, so keep that one low. The finished Oxbow takes a high count.

A good size here: 40–200 pieces.

Also filed under Hudson River School

Subjects here: LandscapesMountainsRivers and Lakes

6 pictures, pick one to build

A View near Tivoli (Morning) 1832 Sketch for View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm (The Oxbow) 1836 Clouds ca. 1838 View on the Catskill—Early Autumn 1836–37 View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow 1836 The Titan's Goblet 1833