The Oxbow
Thomas Cole (1801 to 1848), 1836
$270
Print check at 24 x 18 in: 151 dpi, good. Trimmed 8.9% to the shape of the print.
Shipping to a US address: $25.90 for this piece, from the print room in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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Cole splits his canvas in two: on the left, a dark storm-lashed wilderness of blasted trees and racing cloud; on the right, bathed in sun, the tidy patchwork farmland of the Connecticut valley curling around its great oxbow bend in the river. Between them, halfway down, the painter himself stands at his easel and looks back at us, asking the question the whole picture poses — how much of this wild new country should be cleared and made useful, and how much left wild. It is the founding painting of the Hudson River School, and America arguing with itself about its own land, in paint.
- Maker
- Thomas Cole (1801 to 1848)
- Date
- 1836
- Medium of the original
- Painting
- Original held by
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Credit
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York · via Wikimedia Commons
- Rights
- Public domain, verified
- Catalogue number
- PA-00644
| Picture | 24 x 18 in |
|---|---|
| Outside size | 25.6 x 19.6 in |
| Depth | 0.9 in (22 mm) |
| Weight | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]] |
| Hanging | [[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]] |
| Material | Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing |
| Made in | Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi |
Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.
| Size | dpi | Grade | How it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 x 8 in | 333 | Excellent | Trimmed 2.4% |
| 16 x 12 in | 227 | Excellent | Trimmed 8.9% |
| 18 x 12 in | 222 | Excellent | Trimmed 2.4% |
| 24 x 16 in | 166 | Good | Trimmed 2.4% |
| 24 x 18 in | 151 | Good | Trimmed 8.9% |
| Size | Why |
|---|---|
| 10 x 8 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 14 x 11 in | Wrong shape: a 13% crop |
| 20 x 16 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 30 x 20 in | 133 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 30 x 24 in | Wrong shape: a 15% crop |
| 36 x 24 in | 111 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 40 x 30 in | 91 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 48 x 36 in | 75 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
| 60 x 40 in | 66 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged |
- Scanned
- 2026-10-07
- Master file
- 4,000 x 2,733 px, srgb, sRGB.icc
- Tone
- Darks 28, lights 171 of 255; 0% clipped light, 1.4% clipped dark
- Colour
- 0% vivid
- Sharpness
- 11.36
- Notes
- Neutrals lean warm (yellow): the paper and varnish of the original, kept as scanned
Shipping for this piece to a US address is $25.90, the print room’s own rate, charged per piece. Checkout shows the total before you pay.
Every piece is printed after you order it, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and ships from there. For now we ship to US addresses only.
A piece that arrives damaged, misprinted or in the wrong size is replaced at our cost. The details: shipping and returns and replacements.
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