Depicting a scene in the Catskill Mountains in southeastern New York State, this work is one of five of Cole's 1825 landscapes that initiated the mid-19th century American art movement known as the Hudson River School.

[5] Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum, H. Barbara Weinberg described the style as, “Antebellum encounters with barely tamed nature, lovingly recorded in meticulous botanical detail and overwhelming in scale in comparison with those who enjoy its pleasures...”.

[8] While that was considered a respectable price and sale at the time, another work by Thomas Cole, Part of the Ruins of Kenilworth Castle, was recently put up to be auctioned with an appraisal of the painting estimated to be $200,000 to $300,000.

The exposed raw wood shines sun-bleached in shades of pale yellow, white, and gray, the only darker pigments used to define shadows cast by light from the upper right side of the painting.

dimensions of Lake with Dead Trees make it reminiscent of a picture window offering a portal to the Catskill mountains in southeastern New York State.

It was at nearly the same time that Lake with Dead Trees was sold, as were the other four paintings, and Thomas Cole’s name was starting to become familiar as a noteworthy artist, that the Erie Canal officially opened across upstate New York.

[12] The opening of this major transportation system, second worldwide only to the Grand Canal in China, swept the nation up in a surge of patriotism and celebration of the innovations of this great country.