Thomas Cole

Thomas Cole (February 1, 1801 – February 11, 1848) was an Anglo-American painter who established the Hudson River School. His work focused on romantic landscapes and historical scenes. Though shaped by European artists, his work carried a distinctly American perspective. He was highly productive, creating mostly oil-on-canvas pieces.

His paintings often carry allegorical meanings, featuring small human figures or structures set against dramatic, atmospheric natural backdrops. These works tend to be escapist, presenting the New World as a natural paradise in contrast to the polluted industrial cities of Britain, where he grew up. Considered conservative in outlook, his art criticizes the industrialism, urban growth, and westward expansion of his era.

Cole was born in Bolton le Moors, Lancashire, on February 1, 1801. His family moved to the United States in 1818, settling in Steubenville, Ohio. At twenty-two, he relocated to Philadelphia, and by 1825 he had settled in Catskill, New York, where he lived with his wife and children until his death in 1848.

He began his career as an engraver and taught himself to paint using books and by studying other artists. In 1822, he started as a portrait painter before gradually turning to landscapes.

In New York, George W. Bruen bought three of Cole’s paintings and funded a summer trip to the Hudson Valley. There, Cole produced landscapes of the Catskill Mountain House, Kaaterskill Falls, Fort Putnam’s ruins, and two views of Cold Spring. Back in New York, he displayed five landscapes in William Colman’s bookstore. The *New York Evening Post* reported that A. Seton purchased the two Cold Spring views and lent them to the American Academy of the Fine Arts’ 1826 exhibition. This brought Cole to the attention of John Trumbull, Asher Brown Durand, and William Dunlap. One painting, *View of Fort Ticonderoga from Gelyna*, particularly impressed Trumbull, who bought a painting and connected Cole with wealthy patrons like Robert Gilmor Jr. and Daniel Wadsworth.

Between the National Academy of Design’s founding in 1825 and Cole’s death in 1848, eighty-nine of his works were shown there. Five were engraved for *The Token* and *Atlantic Souvenir* gift books (1826–1842). Historian David S. Lovejoy considered *The Whirlwind* (1837) the best, calling it “unique in its boldness” among the era’s calm landscapes. Critic John Neal described *Chocurua’s Curse* (published in the 1830 volume) as “beautifully contrived.”

Though primarily a landscape painter, Cole also created allegorical series. His most famous is *The Course of Empire* (five paintings, 1833–1836), showing the same landscape from wilderness through empire to ruin, held by the New-York Historical Society. Another is *The Voyage of Life* (four paintings), with a 1840 original at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute and a 1842 replica at the National Gallery. Other well-known works include *The Oxbow* (1836), *The Notch of the White Mountains*, *Daniel Boone at his cabin at the Great Osage Lake*, and *Lake with Dead Trees* (1825) at the Allen Memorial Art Museum. He also painted *The Garden of Eden* (1828), depicting Adam and Eve among waterfalls, vivid plants, and deer. In 2014, friezes he painted on his home’s walls, later covered over, were rediscovered.

Cole influenced fellow Hudson River School artists, notably Durand and Frederic Edwin Church, who studied with him from 1844 to 1846, learning to sketch from nature and develop idealized compositions. Cole traveled abroad in 1829–1832 and 1841–1842, mainly in England and Italy.

Beyond painting, Cole wrote an 1836 article, “American Scenery,” describing his complex aesthetic, emotional, and spiritual ties to the American landscape. He produced over 2,500 sketches, now at the Detroit Institute of Arts. In 1842, he took a Grand Tour to study Old Masters and paint scenery. Mount Etna, Europe’s tallest active volcano, deeply moved him; he made several sketches and at least six paintings of it, most famously *A View of Mount Etna from Taormina* (78 by 120 inches, oil on canvas). He also sketched a panoramic *View of Mount Etna* showing the volcano with the crumbling walls of Taormina’s ancient Greek theater.

Cole also wrote poetry and tried his hand at architecture, a common sideline before the profession was formalized. He entered the 1838 design competition for the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, winning third place.