Portage Falls on the Genesee
Artist: Thomas Cole (American, 1801 - 1848)
Date: ca. 1839
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA, United States
Description
This monumental painting by the Anglo-American artist Thomas Cole captures a sublime view of the Genesee River Valley near Portage Falls in Upstate New York, an area that was undergoing dramatic transformation with the construction of the Genesee Valley Canal. Commissioned in 1839 by Canal Commissioner Samuel B. Ruggles, Cole’s painting is a lyrical tribute to the natural world and a warning about humankind’s effects on it. The ominous storm clouds at the upper right portend the destructive advance of civilization, and the beginnings of a workers’ camp at the top of Portage Falls and “Hornby Lodge” perched atop the cliff, built by the canal’s contractor, Elisha Johnson, signal the impact of human engineering on the landscape. Cole painted a self-portrait of an artist sketching the vista amid autumnal hues, dwarfed by the scale of the gorge and the falls.
