A new exhibition that documents the impact of the Industrial Revolution features several 1800s artists, writers and thinkers as they began to capture the transformation of the environment. Who knew what, and when, from the start of the 19th Century on, about the impact of industrialisation and the use of fossil fuels on the environment? A new exhibition at the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, just outside of Los Angeles, entitled Storm Cloud: Picturing the Origins of Our Climate Crisis , helps to trace the scientific, historical and artistic record back to the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. One early witness to the changing hues of the countryside's once clear skies and untouched landscape was the British-American painter Thomas Cole (1801-1848).
In 1839, he travelled to Portage Falls on the Genesee river in upstate New York to document the sublime vistas, rocky cliffs and abundant foliage surrounding the deep gorge through which the river flowed. Cole's task, commissioned by the New York State Canal Commissioner, was to preserve in oil paint the view about to be destroyed by the forthcoming construction of a new canal that would build on the success of the Erie Canal, which had opened in 1825. Cole, who was known for his monumental landscapes, produced a giant-sized vision of nature's splendour in a canvas that stands 7ft (2.
1m) tall and 5ft (1.5m) wide. Vibrant autumnal foliage frames the dramatic vertical view of the gorge and the waterfalls .
