A Glimpse of Autumn
Thomas Cole, Distant View of Niagara Falls, 1830, 91.4 x 109.2 cm, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA, Wikiart
The weather is getting chilly and the leaves are turning the prettiest shade of orange. The cozy season of autumn is finally here, our last stop before winter! What better way to enjoy the start of the new season than by looking at some nostalgic landscape paintings? Take Gustave Courbet’s The Forest in Autumn and Thomas Cole’s Distant View of Niagara Falls. Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) was one of the leaders of the Realism movement in French painting, while Thomas Cole (1801-1848) is considered the first major American landscape painter. Both paintings reflect the ideal essence of autumn with their color scheme. Both painters portray the passing of time and summer’s readiness to leave its place to autumn. These paintings give you a glimpse of what awaits us and how our surroundings will start to look like very soon. Looking at them, one can already feel the ray of smooth sunlight that is hiding behind the clouds. Got the idea? Perfect, now combine this with the crunchy sound of dry leaves. Sometimes, a landscape painting is what we need to get in the perfect mood. Just one look, and you are already sipping your warm drink and observing the vibrant orange, yellow and green outside your window. Autumn is right around the corner, let these beautiful paintings be the start of a beautiful season.
Gustave Courbet, The Forest in Autumn, 1841, 38 x 54 cm, private collection, Wikiart
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