Thomas Cole - Painter and Founder of The Hudson River School of Painting

Catskill Country - Thomas Cole - Painter

View entering into Catskill Country - Catskill Mountains

Thomas Cole - The Man

(February 1, 1801 - February 11, 1848) was a 19th century American artist. He is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement that flourished in the mid-19th century. Cole's Hudson River School, as well as his own work, was known for its realistic and detailed portrayal of American landscape and wilderness, which feature themes of romanticism and naturalism.

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The Early Years

He was born February 1, 1801 in Bolton, Lancashire, England. In 1818 his family emigrated to the United States, settling in Steubenville, Ohio, where Cole learned the rudiments of his profession from a wandering portrait painter named Stein. However, he had little success painting portraits, and his interest shifted to landscape. Moving to Pittsburgh in 1823 and then to Philadelphia in 1824, where he drew from casts at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, he rejoined his parents and sister in New York City early in 1825.

In late September and early October of 1825, Thomas caught a steamboat ride and took a trip up the Hudson River stopping to get off at West Point to see Fort Putnam and again at Catskill, New York, where he got off again, and went off on a sketching trip high up in the Catskill Mountains. On site he did pencil sketches, but when he got back to his father's apartment on Greenwich Street in New York City, he produced three large oil paintings that almost immediately were put on display in a picture shop window where they were snapped up by leading patrons of the day and in the process, changed American art forever. These three transactions made printed news where the following story appeared in the New York Evening Post on November 22, 1825

His Paintings

Cole was primarily a painter of landscapes, but he also painted allegorical works. The most famous of these are the five-part series, The Course of Empire, now in the collection of the New York Historical Society and the four-part The Voyage of Life. There are two versions of the latter, one at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., the other at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, New York.

In New York he sold three paintings to George W. Bruen, who financed a summer trip to the Hudson Valley where he visited the Catskill Mountain House and painted famous Kaaterskill Falls and the ruins of Fort Putnam. Returning to New York he displayed three landscapes in the window of a bookstore; according to the New York Evening Post, this garnered Cole the attention of John Trumbull, Asher B. Durand, and William Dunlap. Among the paintings was a landscape called "View of Fort Ticonderoga from Gelyna". Trumbull was especially impressed with the work of the young artist and sought him out, bought one of his paintings, and put him into contact with a number of his wealthy friends including Robert Gilmor of Baltimore and Daniel Wadsworth of Hartford, who became important patrons of the artist.

Later Years

Thomas Cole influenced his artistic peers, especially Asher B. Durand and Frederic Edwin Church, who studied with him from 1844 to 1846. Cole spent the years 1829 to 1832 and 1841-1842 abroad, mainly in England and Italy; in Florence he lived with the sculptor Horatio Greenough.

Family and Home

After 1827 Cole maintained a studio at the farm called Cedar Grove in the town of Catskill, New York. He painted a significant portion of his work in this studio. In 1836 he married Maria Bartow of Catskill, a niece of the owner, and became a year-round resident. Thomas and Maria had five children:

Theodore Alexander Cole, born January 1, 1838

Mary Bartow Cole, born September 23, 1839

Emily Cole, born August 27, 1843

Elizabeth Cole, born April 5, 1847 (died in infancy)

Thomas Cole, Jr., born September 16, 1848

Thomas Cole died at Catskill on February 11, 1848.

The fourth highest peak in the Catskills is named Thomas Cole Mountain in his honor. Cedar Grove, also known as the Thomas Cole House, was declared a National Historic Site in 1999 and is now open to the public.

This legendary and influential painter of the American landscape was the founder of the Hudson River School of Painting. Cole’s former studio is located at 218 Spring Street, Catskill (first left after the Rip Van Winkle bridge).