The Last Valley - Paradise Rocks

John La Farge

National Gallery of Art

From a rocky ledge, we look down into a valley between two humped mountains that run into the distance ahead of us in this horizontal landscape painting. The area closest to us has golden yellow and sage-green grasses on a ledge of ash-gray stone. The land drops away beyond the ledge, into a valley, which is also deep in shadow. The conical tops of a few evergreen trees poke up on the far side of the stone ledge. The flat, grassy area between the mountains is moss and olive green. The mountain to our left curves down as it moves away from us, and the long side facing us is sheer, cinnamon-brown stone. The ridge continues into the distance and comes to an end in an emerald-green meadow, which runs parallel to a band of pale blue water. The mountain to our right is entirely in shadow, but the bristly ridge suggests trees. The water meets the ice-blue sky about two-thirds of the way up the composition.