Thomas Cole
This painting, by American landscape painter Thomas Cole, depicts a scene from Manfred, by British poet Lord Byron (1788-1824). Manfred is a dramatic poem about a man (named Manfred) who calls upon supernatural spirits to help him forget past grief and guilt. The story is set in the Swiss Alps, which made it perfect subject matter for a landscape painter like Cole.
In this dramatic painting, Cole shows us a moment where the “Spirit of the Place” appears. She is an Alpine spirit that Manfred summons to his aid. You can see her on the right side of the painting about half way down, with a rainbow above her head. The rest of the painting is filled with dark, dramatic cliffs and a foaming waterfall pouring down from the left. It seems like the “place” this beautiful figure is the spirit of is quite a force to be reckoned with.
Byron and Cole were both part of the Romantic movement, a 19th-century literary and artistic style that embraced beauty, mystery, and powerful emotions of all sorts. And the natural world was one of Romantic artists’ favorite sources of all those. So, it should be no surprise that the dramatic Swiss Alps, rather than the poem’s main character Manfred or even the Spirit of the Place take center stage in this painting.
- Alexandra Kiely
P.S. More breathtaking mountain landscapes you will find among paintings of Caspar David Friedrich and Ferdinand Hodler.