Art expert: If a painting is from the Hudson River School of the mid-nineteenth century United States, it will display a romantic reverence for landscape, portraying pastoral

scenes in which humans and nature coexist peacefully. The painting that was recently discovered in the attic of the old town hall dates from the 1850s and portrays a

pastoral landscape in which two couples are having a peaceful picnic. So the painting must be from the Hudson River School.

The critic’s argument is flawed in that it