Sanford R. Gifford, Catskill Mountain House, oil on canvas, 1862, 9 5/16 x 18 ½ in. Private Collection. View in Scrapbook
Gifford's painting, like Cole's, offers a view from North Mountain with brilliant fall foliage and a human figure on a ledge in the foreground. However, whereas Cole's painting centers the Mountain House in the composition so that it becomes the focus of the image, Gifford pushes it to the right, so that the viewer gets a broad view of the Hudson River Valley below the escarpment. In this way, viewers have access to the majestic prospect that normally only hotel guests could enjoy. 1