FirstPrevious
NextLast
1
view lightbox
view single item
view listSee also...
Thomas Cole
Date: American, born in England, 1801–1848
Remarks:
Born in Bolton-le-Moors, Lancashire, England, on 1 February 1801, Cole immigrated with his parents to Philadelphia in 1818. Cole remained in Philadelphia, working as an engraver's assistant, when his family moved to Steubenville, Ohio, later that same year. In May and June 1819, he traveled to the West Indies, and joined his family that fall in Steubenville. Cole lived and traveled in Ohio until the spring of 1823, then joined his family in Pittsburgh, where they had moved earlier that year. By November 1823, Cole was back in Philadelphia, where he drew from casts and old master and American landscape paintings (both originals and copies) at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, studying work by such artists as Salvator Rosa and Thomas Doughty. In April 1825, Cole moved to New York City, and in late summer took his first sketching trip up the Hudson to the Catskills. From then until his death, he traveled and lived in New York State (the town of Catskill in particular) and New England, except for several trips to England, France, and Italy (1829-32 and 1841-42). He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1834. After becoming seriously ill in early February 1848, he died at Catskill on the 11th, probably of pleurisy.
<br><br>
Cole is generally regarded as the first great American landscape painter. He was the first artist to paint and publicly exhibit scenes of the Catskill Mountains and the Mountain House resort area, and remains the most influential artist in that region. Cole was also a founding member of the National Academy of Design (1826) and the teacher of Frederic E. Church.
<br><br>
Cole is generally regarded as the first great American landscape painter. He was the first artist to paint and publicly exhibit scenes of the Catskill Mountains and the Mountain House resort area, and remains the most influential artist in that region. Cole was also a founding member of the National Academy of Design (1826) and the teacher of Frederic E. Church.
Biography: Thomas Cole is arguably the premier American landscape painter of the nineteenth century. Born in England at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, he grew up in a working class family involved in textile manufacturing, and so from an early age, was well-informed of the effects of industrialization and progress. Cole’s family immigrated to Philadelphia in 1818, but then moved on to Ohio.
Cole later returned to Philadelphia, where he was greatly influenced by painters like Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully, and Thomas Doughty. As a painter, he was largely self-taught and never received formal training. Eventually, Cole moved to New York City, where he began to sell a few landscape paintings. There, he was helped tremendously by John Trumbull, president of the American Academy of Fine Arts, who introduced him to many wealthy American patrons. Lake with Dead Trees was one of three early landscape paintings that garnered attention and helped launch Cole’s career and popularity. In London, 1829, Cole met J.M.W. Turner and John Constable, two very well-known, highly influential British landscape artists. A little more than 10 years later, he traveled to Italy, and worked there for two years painting landscapes, incorporating what he learned into his later American works. After gaining a substantial following of artists who made up the Hudson River School, Cole was nominated for membership in the American Academy of Fine Arts by Samuel Morse, and later became a “charter member” of the National Academy of Design.
Please note: Updating of individual object records is ongoing. New research or the discovery of new documentation may cause the information to change.