Explore Thomas Cole

Large paintings wrapping around the inner walls of a rotunda, originating in Europe at the end of the eighteenth century. Guests would climb a tower to a viewing platform where they would then see the paintings as if from the top of a mountain, giving them a feeling of awe and power. Cole may have seen panoramas on his first trip to Europe in 1829, and their influence can be traced in works such as View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm (The Oxbow) (1836).