Definitions

V
 

View

A landscape view is a more or less "accurate" depiction of an actual place such as Cole's View on the Catskill, Early Autumn (1837), whereas a landscape composition refers to composite views of multiple locations arranged to suit the painter's sensibilities. These distinctions, however, are a matter of degree. In Cole's work, as in the work of virtually all artists, the view is filtered through the painter's imagination and aesthetic priorities. Cole's allegorical subjects, such as The Voyage of Life (1839-40), are several steps further removed from any locatable place, although Cole used en plein air studies to compose such landscapes.