Bartlett was a British landscape artist known for his views appearing in picturesque travel volumes, including American Scenery: or Land, Lake, and River Illustrations of Transatlantic Nature. Each of the topographical landscape views was accompanied by Nathaniel P. Willis’s text. For View from Mount Holyoke, Willis asserted that this was “Probably the richest view in America, in point of cultivation and fertile beauty.
Unknown to Bartlett and Willis, Thomas had painted the Oxbow from Mount Holyoke in 1836. Exercising his artistic license, and discontented with topographical fidelity, Cole’s subject is the clash of the wild and cultivated appearances characteristic of the American landscape. Not content with topographical fidelity, Cole imagined the scene in romantic turmoil and stress.
Bartlett’s intent for American Scenery, however, required emphasis on topography and the placid picturesque qualities of the scene. What is easily surmised is the easy access to the summit (there is a road), the grassy plateau, and the shelter for shade and protection against rain. A nice place for a picnic
Victor de Grailly, a Frenchman who never visited the United States painted Bartlett’s engraving around 1845. He kept the essential details but added food and drink to the picnic.
See American Scenery: or Land, Lake, and River Illustrations of Transatlantic Nature. London: George Virtue, 1839-140; Thomas Cole. View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm– The Oxbow (1836). Metropolitan Museum of Art; Victor de Grailly. The Oxbow Seen from Mount Holyoke (1840c.). Cleveland Museum of Art