Nguyen, Hang Barry School 5th grade: Art, Language Arts & Social Studies The Effects of European Arrival in America

Cole, Thomas View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm- The Oxbow, 1836 Oil on canvas, 51 1/2 x 76 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Russell Sage, 1908 (08.228)

Important Information About the Artwork Divided into two parts diagonally: one shows a wild side and the other shows a cultivated settlement. The artist identifies with the disappearing wild character of American nature by showing himself on that side of the landscape, in the act of painting it.

Key Ideas That Informed the Lesson art expresses ideas art communicates the similarities and differences in the environment art extends the purposes for reading art helps form interpretations about a main theme

What I Wanted Students to Learn: interpret a painting understand history through art identify the cause and effects of European arrival in America recognize how the American landscape changed with European settlement

write a letter to the artist write a diary entry perform a sketch A Few Major Learning Activities

What My Students Learned Native Americans had been living on this land long before the painting of The Oxbow. Thomas Cole believed that cultivated land was beautiful, but he also recognized that the “wildness” was threatened by the arrival of settlers. The American landscape changed with European settlement.

What I Learned  A wide range of strategies are applied to understand and appreciate artwork.  Art has a purpose in history.