River in the Catskills 1843

Curator: We're standing before Thomas Cole's "River in the Catskills," completed in 1843. Cole, as many know, was a founder of the Hudson River School. Editor: It’s astonishing how effectively the composition cultivates a sense of tranquility and order, reflecting, I suppose, the very cultural values these landscapes were built to represent. Yet I find myself feeling a disquiet here—a subtle alienation. Curator: Interesting. Could you elaborate? I see a very self-assured depiction of an unspoiled Eden. Notice the strategic arrangement of light and shadow and the careful mirroring effect in the water. This creates a feeling of balance, an assurance. It harkens back to an idealized vision of the American landscape, a type of pre-industrial, pastoral ideal. Editor: But that is precisely my point. That “Eden” wasn't empty. These landscape paintings actively erase Indigenous presence, presenting a false narrative of pristine wilderness ripe for the taking. Look closer— isn't the lone figure by the river more of an intruder than a harmonious element? And the very act of capturing this landscape normalizes colonial entitlement to land, justified, of course, by manifest destiny and racial supremacy. Curator: I grant you the historical context is crucial, and any glorification of erasure is deeply problematic. But perhaps Cole’s image also operates on a deeper symbolic level. The river itself, a recurrent motif in art history, might represent time, transition, and the ever-changing face of nature. Think of rivers as symbolic boundaries. Editor: Agreed, the river carries multiple significations. However, it simultaneously functions as an element in the larger theater of colonial conquest. Remember the Indian Removal Act just a few years before this piece was created? These paintings are pretty but they reflect an imperial worldview. Curator: I hear your reading of it. I find it difficult to see this kind of intentionality in this landscape from 1843; perhaps a yearning for something lost. Something prior. Editor: It is important to acknowledge the violence and dispossession embedded within them. If art truly is a mirror to society, it's vital to inspect what—and whom—that mirror chooses to reflect and equally important who and what it obscures.