she

Cornwell's depiction of the central heroine, Kit, represents a rare and important moment in Western Art. Seldom over the course of the history of the genre are entire compositions dedicated exclusively to female subjects, and when they are, their characters are almost always decidedly romanticized to fit stereotypical female clichés of the West. Despite the undoubtedly romantic tone of the underlying story, Cornwell depicts a bold, adventurous, guiding woman who is ready for anything.

In the present work, Cornwell depicts the moment that Kit recognizes her opportunity to escape: hidden in the snow with her gun drawn, she hears a man singing a tragic song. She follows his voice to his cabin, where she decides to hide. The singing man feigns ignorance about the girl's whereabouts when questioned by the authorities and, when the men leave, Kit arranges a deal with her depressed host.

The way I make sense of this is:

The mostly in shadow foreground is something like fairly jagged rocks, or an eroded part of a canyon.

The almost entirely lit background means the foreground obstruction is not too tall to shadow the background.

The white that she is standing on is a pile of snow, which she is descending, toward the viewer.

This pile of snow is itself up against... basically a canyon wall.

Everything seems wonky because the striation lines are diagonal, not horizontal as compared to what up is for the woman.

... But this can and does happen in nature. Sometimes large sections of strata get uplifted unevenly, and then erode.

Example: