The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Cole, Thomas

COLE, Thomas, an American painter, born at Bolton-le-Moor, Lancashire, England, Feb. 1, 1801, died at Catskill, N. Y., Feb. 11, 1848. His father, a small woollen manufacturer, after repeated reverses in business, emigrated to America in 1819, and established himself in Steubenville, Ohio. The artist's childhood was unmarked by striking incidents, but the direction of his tastes could be seen in his employment as a designer in a print factory, and in making woodcuts for printers. A fine organization and great fondness for poetry and scenery were his chief characteristics. Two years were spent at Steubenville in the employment of his father, who kept a small shop, when a portrait painter named Stein passed through the town in the pursuit of his vocation, and Cole, fascinated by the sight of his canvas and colors, at once determined to become a painter. With rude materials, mostly prepared by himself, he attempted landscapes and miscellaneous subjects, and finally portraits. In February, 1822, he went on foot to Clairsville, where he proposed to establish himself as a portrait painter. The western states did not then afford a promising field for artists, and both at Clairsville and Zanesville, which he subsequently visited, he not only failed to meet with any encouragement, but when he rejoined his family in the spring at Pittsburgh he was in debt for the means of support during his absence. Undiscouraged by reverses, he spent the spring and summer of 1823 in making careful studies from nature in the vicinity of Pittsburgh, and the autumn saw him established in Philadelphia as a landscape painter. The ensuing winter was one of great privation. He painted small landscapes and comic pieces, and was often glad to find regular employment in ornamenting chairs, brushes, and japanned ware. His powers however were rapidly developing, and in the works of this period may be seen the germ of that rich and harmonious style for which he was afterward distinguished. In the spring of 1825 he removed to New York, where his family were now established, and fixed his studio in the garret of his father's house in Greenwich street. The scenery of the Hudson called out all his artistic enthusiasm, and during a visit to the Catskills in the autumn of this year he painted several landscapes, which were exhibited on his return to the city. These pictures attracted the attention and praise of Durand, Dunlap, and Trumbull, and "from that time," says Bryant in his funeral oration on Cole, "he had a fixed reputation, and was numbered among the men of whom our country has reason to be proud." The next four years found Cole in the enjoyment of great prosperity; commissions flowed in upon him from all quarters; and visits to the White mountains, the Catskills, and Niagara afforded varied and striking studies. But in the midst of a career from which few artists would have cared to deviate, Cole felt that the literal reproduction of natural scenery, however profitable it might be, could not satisfy him; and he determined to enter the higher sphere of imaginative composition. The fruit of this determination was witnessed in his pictures of the "Garden of Eden" and the "Expulsion," exhibited in 1828. The merit of these works was admitted, but they failed to satisfy the public taste so completely as his simple landscapes. In June, 1829, Cole sailed for Europe, and for two years painted in London, where he contributed to several of the annual exhibitions; but from ignorance of the peculiar features of American scenery, or the injustice of hanging committees, his pictures were either regarded as exaggerations of nature, or were so disadvantageously placed that they attracted less attention than their merits deserved. In May, 1831, he visited Florence, and made careful studies in the chief galleries. In the succeeding February he visited Rome, and returning to Florence in July, worked with an assiduity which surprised himself, finishing more pictures in three months than he had done in double that time before. Among these were views on the Arno and in the vicinity of Rome and Naples. The influence of Italian scenery and of his studies of old Italian art had meanwhile wrought a change in his style, and the public were disappointed with these works upon their arrival in America, complaining that the artist had lost his first freshness and originality, and that his Italian landscapes were overcharged copies from the old masters. In November, 1832, he returned to New York, and during the ensuing year, while at Catskill, he received from Mr. Luman Reed of New York an order to fill an entire room of his house with pictures. The magnitude of the undertaking required several years of undivided labor, the most of which was devoted to the "Course of Empire," a series of five pictures, in which are presented, to use his own words, "an illustration of the history of the human race, as well as an epitome of man, showing the natural changes of landscape, and those effected by man in his progress from barbarism to civilization, to luxury, to the vicious state, or state of destruction, and to the state of ruin or desolation." The series has been called "a great epic poem." Mr. Reed died before the completion of the work, and at the distribution of his estate it was purchased by the New York gallery of fine arts, and is now in the gallery of the New York historical society. For the next few years Cole was engaged upon works of a similar class, chief among which were the "Departure" and the "Return," the "Dream of Arcadia," and the "Voyage of Life." The last, an allegorical series of four pictures, representing childhood, youth, manhood, and old age, are among the most popular of his works, and through the engravings by Smillie are most extensively known. They are now owned by J. Taylor Johnston of New York. In November, 1836, he married Miss Maria Bartow. The autumn of 1841 found him again in Rome, where he executed a duplicate of his "Voyage of Life," which elicited the praise of Thorwaldsen, who visited his studio repeatedly to see it. In the succeeding spring he travelled over many parts of Sicily, and returned to New York in the summer. An exhibition of his works was opened in Boston and New York in the winter of 1843-'4, for which he painted a number of Sicilian views of great beauty, including a large picture of Mount Etna from Taormina, executed in five days; this is now in the Wadsworth gallery, Hartford, Conn., as are also the "View of the White Mountains" and the "View of Northwest Bay on Lake Winnipiseogee." The "Angel appearing to Shepherds" is in the Boston Athenæum. Thenceforth until his death he painted with industry, executing among other works the "Cross in the Wilderness," "L'Allegro" and "II Penseroso," "Home in the Woods," the "Hunter's Return," the "Mountain Ford," &c. The "Cross and the World," a work in two parts, dictated by earnest religious conviction, he left unfinished. His life and genius were made the subject of a funeral oration by his friend William Cullen Bryant. In all the relations of life Cole's amiability and generosity were engagingly displayed, and to those who could sympathize with his enthusiastic and impressible nature, he especially endeared himself. His life was one of singular purity, and in the latter part of it he manifested a sincere and unostentatious piety. His poetic feeling, so amply illustrated in his works, frequently found expression in rhythmical forms, and his miscellaneous papers in prose and verse, few of which were ever made public, possess considerable literary merit.