How does The Oxbow elucidate its Composition?
The painting moves from a dark wilderness with shattered tree trunks on rugged cliffs in the foreground covered with violent rain clouds on the left to a light-filled and peaceful, cultivated landscape on the right, which borders the tranquility of the bending Connecticut River. The view Cole sought to paint was a particularly difficult one, as its panoramic breadth extended beyond the width of typical landscape paintings of the period. To solve this problem, Cole stitched together two separate views from Mt. Holyoke, creating a synthetic, rather than a faithful, image of the scene. On the hill in the far background, logging scars in the forest can be observed, which appear to form Hebrew letters. This was first noticed by Matthew Baigell long after the landscape was painted. It reads as Noah (נֹ֫חַ) If viewed upside down, as if from God's perspective, the word Shaddai is formed, "The Almighty." Cole gives himself a tiny self-portrait sitting on the rocks in the foreground with his easel.
Mt. Holyoke viewed upside down Shaddai self-portrait landscape painting Hebrew letters Connecticut River Noah