It is a slideshow about the life and works of Thomas Cole and the painters of the Hudson River School. It also includes his painting series on The Course of Empire and Voyage of Life. Apart from paintings by the Hudson River School, the slideshow also touch upon the European Romanticism painters. Thomas Cole was an American artist known for his landscape and history paintings. He is regarded as the founder of the Hudson School of painters. Cole’s work is known for its romantic portrayal of the American wilderness. This is one of a series of Powerpoints on the American Painters.

1. Thomas Cole
and the Hudson River School
The Titan’s Goblet (Detail). 1833. Thomas Cole.
First created 17 Dec 2010. Version 3.0 - 26 Apr 2016. Jerry Tse. London.All rights reserved. Rights belong to their respective owners. Available
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2. An early works
Kaaterskill Falls. 1826. Oil on canvas 64.x92 cm.

3. An early works
Cole was born in 1801 and brought up
in Bolton, Lancashire, England. He
was trained as an engraver in textile
design shop but he read a great deal
and would be familiar with the poetry of
Wordsworth, Coleridge and Thomson.

4. Many of his early works were views of Catskill area.

5. Picturesque Landscape - Catskill and the Hudson River
Thomas Cole subscribed to the concept of a picturesque landscape by Gilpin, meaning an unexplored wilderness, primitive forests, rugged
mountains and impetuous river. Cole had all these elements in many of his painting.

6. Picturesque Landscape - Last of the Mohican

7. Last of the Mohican Details
Details of Screen from “The Last of the Mohicans”, Cora Kneeling at the Feet of Tamermund, 1827.

8. The Dead Tree
There is always a dead tree in his early painting. It may used to convey a sense of wilderness . Dead is often used as a symbol of
mortality.

9. Between 1829 and 1832, he spent 3 years on visit to Europe.

10. Europe was an inspiration
The Cascatelli, Tivoli Looking Toward Rome. 1832. Oil on canvas 82x113 cm. Thomas Cole. Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus. Ohio.

11. Florence was a happy place for Cole.

12. Mount Etna

13. The Course of Empire
It is his most famous work which depicts the
same landscape over the fortune of an empire
from its beginning to its eventual destruction.
Was this a warning to the developing America?
On his first trip to Europe, he visited Rome,
which inspired Cole to consider the development
of The Course of Empire.
Pastoral
Savage
Consummation
Destruction
Desolation

14. The dawn of an empire without monuments or records.
The Course of Empire: The Savage State. 1836. Oil on canvas 100x162 cm. Thomas Cole. New York Historical Society. New York.

15. The beginning of culture and technology. Lives without want and greed.
The Course of Empire: The Pastoral or Arcadian State. 1836. Oil on canvas 100x162 cm. Thomas Cole. New York Historical Soc. New York.

16. Empire building – Nature almost disappeared.
The Course of Empire: The Consummation. 1836. Oil on canvas 100x162 cm. Thomas Cole. New York Historical Society. New York.

17. Order replaced by chaos and destructions.
The Course of Empire: The Destruction. 1836. Oil on canvas 100x162 cm. Thomas Cole. New York Historical Society. New York.

18. Cole was not a very good portrait painter. He gave up portrait for landscape.
The Course of Empire: The Destruction (Detail). 1836. 100x162 cm. Thomas Cole. New York Historical Society. New York.

19. ‘Violence and time have crumbled the works of man’, as nature reasserts itself.
The Course of Empire: The Desolation. 1836. Oil on canvas 100x162 cm. Thomas Cole. New York Historical Society. New York.

20. White Mountains

21. Techniques &
Styles
Small human figures.
Detail painted foliage.
Middle ground
with lots of details
Bright & dark areas
provided a more
dramatic setting.
Leaning tree on
near ground.
Dramatic sky.

22. Schroon Mountain, Adirondacks

23. Voyage of Life
Cole had long been fascinated with the idea of
the cycle of life and the cycles of history and in
its decaying grandeur. Rome represented in
both symbol and reality of old Europe.
This suite of religious paintings was done in
1842. It is an allegory journey of a man down the
river of life. We may feel indifferent to these
paintings, but these were deeply moving to the
viewers at the time. Nearly half a million
American flocked to see the paintings in an
exhibition, in 1848. The religious overtone of the
paintings simply fitted to the piety of its American
viewers.
Childhood
Youth
Manhood
Old Age

24. Voyage of Life was commissioned to depict a pilgrim’s path through life.
Voyage of Life : Childhood. 1839-40. 132x198 cm.

25. Voyage of Life - Each painting corresponds to a season in a year.
Voyage of Life : Youth. 1840. 133x199 cm.

26. Voyage of Life – A turn in manhood with turbulence, danger and uncertainty.
Voyage of Life : Manhood. 1840. 132x198 cm.

27. Finally in Old Age, the man reaches the sea and the promise of eternal salvation.
Voyage of Life : Old Age. 1840. 132x198 cm.

28. Late works – Mount Etna

29. Late works – L’Allego
L’Allego. 1845. Oil on canvas 53x122 cm. Thomas Cole. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles. California.

30. Increasing religious in the early 1840s.

31. Hudson River School
Several members of the Hudson River School were instrumental in founding the Metropolitan
Museum, New York, including Church, Kensett and Gifford.
The Hudson River School was a informal association of American landscape painters, working in the
middle of 19C. Founded by Thomas Cole and influenced by European painters. They gave
Romanticism a new theme, by adding moral values and historical subjects.
Cole Durand Kensett Church
Gifford Cropsey Bierstadt Moran

32. Timeline of American Painters – Hudson River School

33. Frederic Edwin Church - The most admired of the Hudson River School Painter

34. Asher Brown Durand –
He was very close to
Thomas Cole, who
wrote to him regularly.

35. John Frederick Kensett – One of the seascape painters

36. Sanford Robinson Gifford - Known for emphasis on light (Luminism)

37. Albert Bierstadt
Cathedral Rocks, Yosemite Valley. 1872. 35x49 cm. Albert Bierstadt.

38. Jasper Francis Cropsey died in anonymity but was rediscovered in 1960.

39. Thomas Moran – Well-known as a member of a team that explored Yellowstone.

40. Comparison with European Landscape
19C American Landscape
According to the art critic, Robert Hughes the
development of American landscape painting was
a logical direction. By early 19C, the American
Republic was no longer new. The iconic founders
of the nation were all dead and very old.
The nation was on a territorial expansion. The
unique and marvellous American landscape
became the nation’s myth. The landscape painting
became an assertion of the national identity.
The first noticeable difference with the European
landscape is the very large canvas commonly used
by the American landscape painters.
A closer inspection would show that the American
landscape paintings is part of the Romanticism
movement.
The 19C American landscape style was described
as the Luminism. It emphasized on the effects of
light on landscape and played close attention to
details and the brushstrokes were hidden.

41. Comparison –
American and
European Landscape

42. Thomas Cole Biography
Cole was born in 1801 and brought up in
Bolton, Lancashire, England. He was trained
as an engraver in textile design shop but he
read a great deal and would be familiar with the
poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Thomson.
In 1818, his family emigrated to the United
States, when he was 17. He was able to begin
to earn a living by making wood-engraving.
Soon, he took up painting and began his interest
in painting landscape.
By 1825, he moved to
New York city and sold 3
paintings to George W
Bruen, who financed a
summer trip to the
Hudson Valley, where he
visited the Catskill
Mountain and painted the
Kaaterskill Falls.
Cole influenced his artistic peers, especially
Asher B Durand and Frederic Edwin Church,
who studied with Cole from 1844 to 1846.
Thomas Cole is often regarded as the founder
of the Hudson School of Painting.
In 1829 he travelled to
London, where he met
Thomas Lawrence and
Turner. In 1831 he
travelled to Paris and to
Florence. He stayed in
Europe for 3 years
before returning to the
US.
From 1841 to 1842, he revisited Europe, staying
in London, Paris and the Alps.
In 1848, Cole died at Catskill. The 4th
highest
peaks in the Catskills is named after him. He
was the best-known American artist at the time of
his death and mourned by everyone who had the
slightest affiliation with arts.
Thomas Cole. 1838 by Asher B Durand

43. Thomas Cole Timeline
Cole was the first American painter, who saw
the power of landscape painting to elevated
the spirit of morality and bring humankind
closer to the Creator. This approach to
painting is uniquely an American invention.
This lies the contribution of Thomas Cole to
the development of American painting.

44. Conclusion
In the early 19C, in contrast with Europe’s anti-clericalism, American was experiencing a religious
revival, which saw millions of followers and led to the formation of new churches. Linked to the idea
of Awakening was the return to a ‘purer’ or ‘primitive’ form of Christianity, based on the Bible alone.
Many saw this, the Second Great Awakening heralded a new age before the Second Coming of
Jesus Christ.
The Second Great Awakening
The philosophy of Romanticism is essentially a reaction against the Age of Reason, with its
foundation on the Enlightened philosophy. It also a rejection of the Industrial Revolution, which was
build on the scientific methods and on objective measurements.
Romanticism
Romanticism is label given to a group of artists, musicians and literary writers, that spanned around
1790 and 1830.
Romanticism emphasizes the view of emotion as a authentic source of experience, which help
humankind to see the greatness beyond calculation, measurement or imitation. Romanticism also
sees the futility of humankind up against the overwhelming power of nature. Nature is not there to
be tamed.
The Hudson River School of painting should be seen as an artistic movement, developed under
these cultural environments.
Amongst the newly founded churches were the Disciples of Christ, the Mormons, the Seventh Day
Adventist and the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada.

45. Music – Excerpt Antonin Dvorak, New World Symphony,
Symphony No 9 in E minor. Op 95. Second Movement – Largo.
Written during his visit to the United States from 1892 to 1895.
The End
All rights reserved. Rights belong to their respective owners.
Available free for non-commercial and personal use.

46. The American Painters