View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow

In the pictureThe left half shows a dark mountain with a storm passing over it and broken trees; the right half shows the Connecticut River winding in sunlight through orderly farmland. The river bends in a U shape like an ox yoke (an oxbow). On a rock at the lower left are a small easel and a painter, with an umbrella beside them. The painter looks back toward us.

BackgroundIn 1836 Thomas Cole painted the view he saw from Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts. Cole was the founder of the American school of landscape painting (the Hudson River School), and the accepted interpretation is that in The Oxbow he painted the American moment when wilderness (left) meets civilization (right). Cole's sorrow at nature disappearing to development is thought to be expressed in the broken trees. The painter in the picture is Cole himself.

Puzzle tipThe left and right divide into dark and light, so sort the pieces that way first. On the left, place pieces by the shapes of trees and rocks; on the right, by the bend of the river and the grid of the fields. For the sky, start with the pieces on the boundary between the dark clouds on the left and the clear sky on the right. The easel and umbrella are small but reliable reference points.