Twilight exemplifies the work completed by the artist during his sojourns in and around Warwick, New York, where he built a home christened “Alladin.” Given the sweeping panoramic view and setting, in which an elongated lake is encircled by mountain ranges, it is quite possible that Twilight records a view seen near Greenwood Lake, an area located in the southern reaches of Warwick. Twilight maintains a balance between the artist’s earlier, dramatic works, and the more picturesque images of nature in his later paintings. Using a grouping of autumn-colored trees as a framing device, Cropsey leads the viewer into the right portion of the painting, offering an expansive view of the lake below. Outcroppings of rock, reminiscent of the style of Thomas Cole, fill the foreground and middle ground and serve to further the sense of enclosure and intimacy produced by the surrounding environment. Two small figures can be seen communing with nature as they watch the sunset descend into the blue tones of water below. The diminutive size of these close companions acts as a symbolic reference to man’s humility and the sublime feeling in the presence of natural wonders, elements also found in the works of Casper David Friedrich, a predecessor, even if indirectly through his students, to the sensibilities of the Hudson River School.
