Thomas Cole (1801-1848) fathered the Hudson River School with his famous excursion into the Catskill Mountains in the summer of 1825 and his first paintings of the wild landscape he found there.  The nation was eager for the idea of pure rawness of nature being seen as God's cathedral.  Here the lack of history meant purity.

When Griffin came across Cole's unusual rock formation at Little Stony Point with Storm King Mountain looming up behind it, she couldn't resist painting the scene.  The grandeur is there and most of civilization is not in evidence (only the road cutting through the rock face is visible).