By Joseph Skiffington “One cannot contemplate these eminences without admiring them, as forming bold and beautiful features in the scenery around New Haven …. They are composed of precipitous cliffs of naked frowning rock, hoary with time, moss-grown and tarnished by a superficial decomposition, looking like an immense work of art.” (Boer, Wareham, 5) This was a description of New Haven, East Rock, and West Rock by the acclaimed Yale scientist Benjamin Silliman. (Boer, 5) The natural of beauty of New Haven and its towering rocky guardians has been something that has captivated the mind and inspiration of many painters especially from about 1825-1880 when landscape painting emerged as an influential artistic movement. West Rock Ridge stands seven hundred feet tall at its highest point made of volcanic rock known as dolerite which when in contact with oxygen gives it its characteristic red color. With a sheered face and its twin East Rock guarding New Haven at the opposite side, We...