# Kauterskill Clove, Catskill Mountains

- By: Sanford Robinson Gifford (American, 1823–1880)
- Date: 1880
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: 33.7 × 27 cm (13 1/4 × 10 5/8 in.)
- Culture: United States
- Credit line: The Goodman and Wirt D. Walker funds
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/97291)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/dd91d801-7155-a7ee-bfb5-70b94e43e100/full/!1805,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

The Catskill Mountains were a favored subject of Sanford Robinson Gifford, an important landscape painter of the mid-nineteenth century who grew up nearby in Hudson, New York. In Kauterskill Clove, Catskill Mountains, Gifford bathes the forested gorge in golden light. The scene’s thick, rich atmosphere transforms a topographical view into a romantic vista. A miniscule daub of blue paint on the rocks in the foreground suggests the presence of a figure and, in turn, signals the immensity of nature, visualized here as a place of spiritual transcendence. Gifford painted numerous versions of Kauterskill Clove throughout his career, with this small sketch completed during the last year of his life.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0