An Appreciation:
Thomas Cole

 Thomas Cole was an American artists in the first half of the 19th century. He revolutionized American landscape art and is considered the father of the Hudson River School.

Cole was born in 1801 in Bolton, Lancashire in England. He was the seventh of eight children. As a child, he was exposed to poetry and music but due to the impoverishment of his father, Thomas was apprenticed in the local factories, first to a calico designer and later to an engraver.

The family immigrated to the United States in 1818 and settled first in Steubenville, Ohio. His father set up a wallpaper business and Thomas worked there. However, a chance encounter with an itinerant portrait painter led Thomas to decide to become an artist. In the process, the portrait painter showed Thomas some of the basics of his craft such as how to mix colors.

The family business moved to Pittsburgh. However, before work each day, Thomas would walk through the woods with his sketchbook, drawing trees and the local terrain. Branching out, Cole started to try his hand as an itinerant portrait artist.

Thomas then moved to Philadelphia in 1823 where he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. To support himself, Cole took jobs as a wood engraver, an art teacher, a portraitist, and a writer.

Inspired by the beauty of the American wilderness, Cole's ambition focused on becoming a landscape painter. He found a spiritual quality in its beauty that he tried to capture in both his paintings and his poetry. Cole wanted to bring his art to a level beyond the mannerist landscapes that had thus far been done in America.

Unfortunately, Cole faced an uphill battle. Landscape painting was not highly regarded by the art establishment in Europe or in America. Sir Joshua Reynolds, the first President of the Royal Academy of Art, had only grudgingly admitted that landscape painters were worthy of being called artists. It was generally accepted that there had been a few great landscape painters such as Claude Lorain but for the most part, landscapes were deemed little better than decoration.

In addition, American art was considered inferior to European art. The young country had essentially no artistic or cultural traditions. Wealthy patrons of the arts would much rather buy an inferior European work than gamble on local talent.

Seeking a more receptive audience, Cole moved to New York City in 1825. There, he sold five paintings to George W. Bruen. This was enough to finance an expedition up the Hudson River to acquire ideas for paintings. Cole filled his sketchbooks with the scenic beauty of the Hudson Highlands and the Catskills.

Cole did not paint directly from nature. Instead, he would make detailed sketches of what he observed. Then, he would let what he had seen percolate in his mind, separating out what was important from unnecessary details. With that accomplished, he would create paintings in his studio.

Following this expedition, he arranged for five of his paintings to be displayed at William Colman's bookstore in New York City. These came to the attention of the established artist John Trumbull, well-known for his paintings of the Revolutionary War. Trumbull told artist Asher B. Durand of Cole's work and Durand was influenced by Cole's approach.  Trumbull also  spoke to theatrical producer and artist William Dunlop who brought Cole's work to the attention of New York's literary and cultural circles. Through Trumbull, a number of wealthy patrons took an interest in the young artist.

Cole was the right man in the right place at the right time. What particularly interested Trumbull and the others was the way Cole captured the feeling of the American wilderness like no artist before him. Coincidentally, the United States was now old enough to have a significant number people who had accumulated enough money to patronize the arts and with the opening of the Erie Canal, there was a growing sense of pride in American accomplishments. Cole's depictions of the beauty of the American landscape was just what the public wanted.

Recognized and successful, his paintings were selling. In addition to pure landscapes, Cole began incorporating themes from American history and legends into his art. Along the same lines, he depicted scenes from his contemporary James Fenimore Cooper's novels set against the wilds of upper New York State.

​Yet, Cole felt incomplete as an artist. Therefore, in 1829, Cole journeyed to Europe in order to complete his art education. In London, he viewed Old Master works at the new National Gallery. He attended exhibitions at the Royal Academy and met contemporary artists who were also seeking to elevate the status of landscape art. He liked John Constable and the two became friends. Cole found JMW Turner too rough and some of his more progressive works were not to Cole's taste.

After a brief time in Paris, he traveled on to Florence. In addition to seeing that city's art, he enrolled in figure drawing classes at the Academy of St. Luke's.

Then, it was off to Rome, where he sketched the classical ruins. A Romantic, Cole was attracted to the melancholy of long abandoned structures. He also drew the countryside surrounding Rome as Claude Lorrain had once done.

Cole returned to the United States in 1832 with a large numbr of completed works and sketchbooks full of ideas for new works. These European works were again popular and sold well.

One of the ideas Cole had been thinking about during his journey was to attempt a number of series of large allegorical paintings. Perhaps the best known of these is the “Course of Empire” - a series of five paintings showing a landscape as a fictional classical civilization rises and then falls. Cole was concerned that the free-wheeling policies of President Andrew Jackson might cause American civilization to deteriorate in a similar manner. Another allegorical series “The Voyage of Life” depicts a person from youth to old age.

Cole made a second trip to Europe in 1841, visiting England, France, Switzerland and Italy.

Ever since 1832, Cole had maintained a summertime studio on a farm in Catskill, New York.  (See separate article).  There he met Maria Bartow, who he married in 1836. From then, Cole became a permanent resident of Catskill.

As Cole's reputation grew, young artists began to come to see him in Catskill. Inspired by Cole's approach to landscape painting, these disciples became the Hudson River School. Frederic Edwin Church became Cole's student and studied under him from 1844 to 1846.

After attending a morning church service on February 6, 1848, Cole complained that he felt unwell. His condition worsened over the next few days and on February 11, he died of pleurisy.

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Cole captured the public imagination with sweeping views of America's majestic scenery.  Above:  "The Oxbow".  Below: "Distant View of Niagara Falls."

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Quite popular during Cole's lifetime were his allegorical paintings.  Above: From the "Course of Empire" series, "Consummation."   Below: "The Architect's Dream."

A Romantic admirer of Wordsworth and Byron, Cole was attracted to moody scenes such as "Landscape with Ruined Tower" above.
​Below: "View of the Catskills - - Early Autumn."

Cole also found inspiration in classical myths, popular legends and stories from the Bible, which he depicted in majestic scenery.  Above: "Prometheus Bound."

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Artist appreciation - Thomas Cole