Thomas Cole - Hudson River School

Thomas Cole

A review of two Websites, ThomasCole.com  and Metropolitan Museum of Art

These websites include a large collection of information about the life and art of Thomas Cole and includes his work in the Catskills and later in his life his home/studio in the Catskills area in Cedar Hill NY.

To have an opportunity to learn more about the Hudson Valley School and Thomas Cole is an opportunity that I as a graphic artist and designer felt fortunate to take.  I am learning about important history, a prominent American artist, who produced beautiful Northern State countryside landscapes including New York State and the New England States.   The Hudson Valley School and Thomas Cole are frequently mentioned on PBS Series, Antiques Roadshow. Antiques Road Show series previews many paintings from artists that are reviewed for current value.  Needless to say this subject is going to be a history overview that has clear benefits in my profession and my artist interests.

Thomas Cole was born in England in 1801. His family emigrated to United States in 1818 where after settling he was able to work as a self taught portrait artist.  In 1820s Cole went to Philadelphia and worked as an engraver.  He then went to work for his father at his wallpaper manufacturing company. Eventually went back to Philadelphia to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art to study and where some of his work was put on exhibition. He later moved to New York City.

In 1824 a tourist inn was opened up in the Catskills region of New York about 50 miles down the Hudson River.  Cole had admired the landscape painter Thomas Douty’s work earlier in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and was interested in becoming a landscape painter.  Douty was the first American Landscape artist/painter to gain acclaim in the genre.  Cole decided to sail down the Hudson River where he sketched in his sketchpad the natural surroundings on the trip down the river and in the Catskill region.  Cole then worked on painting a set of paintings from the visit to the Catskills.

In 1825 after viewing some of Cole’s paintings from the Catskills, an American Artist, Colonel John Trumbull, (the artist that painted the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, in 1817) who was traveling with William Dunlap and Asher B. Durand, saw Cole’s Paintings in a bookstore’s window, went into the store.  The men appreciated Cole’s paintings and Trumbull convinced each of them to buy one of the paintings.  Trumbull, Dunlap and Durand observed that Cole’s landscape paintings exhibited qualities that other painters had not in previous works of that type.  After Trumbull’s and Durand’s discovery of Cole, his work grew in popularity and he began to sell more paintings and participate in art society in NYC.  He also grew to become one of the founders of the National Design Academy.

The Hudson River School was used to describe a new type of painting style originating in New York and spanning the years 1850 to 1900.  The landscape artists who’s founder of the natural style of painting was Thomas Cole.and the subject of the paintings were the countryside of the New York, and New England. 

When Cole’s work was gaining popularity and acclaim the excitement grew in the Art community to go explore the wild nature of the Hudson Valley and the Catskills area and artists began to seek the natural beauty of North East America that Cole had captured in the 1820s.   The new group of painters that had began to paint the Hudson Valley worked from a studio in NYC.  Some of them belonged to the same society groups and eventually built homes on the Hudson River.

In1832 Thomas Cole made his home and studio in Cedar Grove NY in the Catskills. In 1836 he married Maria Bartow. During that time he painted many great commissioned works, traveled to Europe and in 1844 began to teach landscape painting. 

The only actual students from what would, be referred to as the Hudson River School that Thomas Cole taught were Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900) and Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902), Frederic Church went on to be the most successful of the artists.  In February of 1848, Thomas Cole became sick died suddenly.

After Cole passed away the lead for the New York Landscape Painters was Asher B. Durand one of the people who first discovered Cole in 1825. The New York Landscape painters group grew and Durant produced and standardized the naturalism that the New York Landscape Painters were adhering to for their painting style.  This put the Hudson River School into history.  The information contained in this research paper has helped me understand more of the art world in the United States between 1820-1850.

The Hudson River School & Thomas Cole

"Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History." Thomas Cole (1801–1848). 09 May 2013 .

Thomas Douty

"LCP Art & Artifacts." LCP Art & Artifacts. 09 May 2013 .

The Hudson River School Website

"HRSAT: Welcome." HRSAT: Welcome. 09 May 2013 .

John Trumbull & Declaration of Independence"Buy a Declaration." The Declaration of Independence by Trumbull. 09 May 2013