托马斯·科尔油画风景《雨后牛轭湾》高清图片

作品简介

这幅长期以《牛轭湾》之名著称的作品，堪称美国风景画的巅峰之作，蕴含多重解读空间。1836年3月2日，科尔在创作《帝国兴衰》(现藏纽约历史学会)期间致赞助人卢曼·里德的信中提到，他正在绘制此题材的大幅版本以供展览销售。该画作1836年以《雷雨后的马萨诸塞州北安普敦霍利奥克山眺望图》为题亮相国家设计学院展览。科尔对此景致的兴趣可追溯至1829-1832年的欧洲之旅，其间他临摹了巴兹尔·霍尔《1827-1828年北美暗箱写生四十帧》中的同视角版画。霍尔曾批评美国人对自家风景的漠视，而科尔则以这幅"集如画、崇高与壮美于一体"的风景作出回应，礼赞美洲风光的独特性。尽管科尔常对土地征服态度模糊，但在此画中他通过并置原始荒野与田园聚落，凸显国家地貌的潜力，指向美利坚民族的未来图景。艺术家在中景处精心描绘了正在岬角写生的自我形象——这个充满道德寓意的构图设计，昭示着"创作美国艺术的美国画家，正与美洲风景进行精神对话"。现存相关主题的素描本注解及油彩草图多幅，后世艺术家亦多有临摹仿作。

Long known as "The Oxbow," this work is a masterpiece of American landscape painting, laden with possible interpretations. In the midst of painting "The Course of Empire" (New-York Historical Society), Cole mentioned in a letter dated March 2, 1836, to his patron Luman Reed that he was executing a large version of this subject expressly for exhibition and sale. The picture was shown at the National Academy of Design in 1836 as "View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm." Cole's interest in the subject probably dates from his 1829–32 trip to Europe, during which he made an exact tracing of the view published in Basil Hall's "Forty Etchings Made with the Camera Lucida in North America in 1827 and 1828." Hall criticized Americans' inattentiveness to their scenery, and Cole responded with a landscape that lauds the uniqueness of America by encompassing "a union of the picturesque, the sublime, and the magnificent." Although often ambiguous about the subjugation of the land, here the artist juxtaposes untamed wilderness and pastoral settlement to emphasize the possibilities of the national landscape, pointing to the future prospect of the American nation. Cole's unequivocal construction and composition of the scene, charged with moral significance, is reinforced by his depiction of himself in the middle distance, perched on a promontory painting the Oxbow. He is an American producing American art, in communion with American scenery. There are both sketchbook drawings with annotations and related oil sketches of this subject. Many other artists copied or imitated the painting.