Thomas Cole
Painting landscapes was very important during the 19th century. Thomas Cole was one of the most important figures in landscape painting in the United States. He went to many places searching for nature, which he painted to show the unmatchable beauty nature creates. His works of art helped people see and take pride in their great land, which was called America. Cole’s works were often made people feel like they needed to go out in nature and discover the inspiring world of mother earth.
Thomas Cole, born on February 1, 1801 in Lancashire, England, found himself at fourteen working as a textile printer and wood engraver in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Cole returned to his parents in 1819 in Ohio; this is were he learned how to oil paint and how to use different kinds of oil painting techniques under the supervision of a portrait painter, Stein. Cole was very impressed and impacted by the landscapes of the “new world” and how magnificent they were compared to where he came from, which was England. Cole found that art came naturally to him and eventually taught himself how to observe nature and still life. He started by illustrating American trees, plants, animals, and even Native Americans. With his sketches of nature he made several different paintings including his famous “The Course of Empire”, “The wood chopper”, and “The Oxbow.”
In early 1826, Thomas Cole was most famous for being the creator of the National Academy of Design. As the founder, Cole was urged by fans to paint American scenery, but Cole desired to create a landscape painting that could express moral and religious meanings. He painted and painted and then in 1836 he married and settled in Catskill, New York to Maria Bartow. In Catskill he made a beautiful landscape painting of the Catskill Mountains and Hudson River. He is said to have made a big impact on artists like Frederick Church and Albert Bierstadt. Sadly, Cole died early of a disease on February 11, 1848.
But his life wasn’t fruitless, he helped lead the first school of landscape called the Hudson River School into the making; were many more leading artists came. Thomas Dougherty, Asher Brown Durand, Albert Bierstadt, and others came from the Hudson River School and they all became romantic realists and painted about the American country sides. These realists joined detail panoramic images with moral insights, which ...
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...ce with some trees shot out on the nearside of the painting. The image is painted as if the viewers are taken in a moment of time. The artist can’t be seen at a first glance because he is greatly tiny in the picture, but he is in the image. It seems that Cole tries to get the viewer to see beyond their field of vision to see nature’s colors, lights, and artistry. The storm can be seen as humans who will eventually wipeout the wild and replace it with its own possessions.
Thomas Cole is one of the best realists out there. He made Americans and non-Americans see beauty in nature, opportunities, possibilities, and a future in America. He didn’t only inspire a nation, but he also inspired many artists to reach their goals in the art world. Cole was a brilliant, talented artist, and did a mighty fine job in effecting the art world.
Works Cited
The Hudson River School: American Landscape Artists. New York: Smithmark Publishers, 1996.
http://faculty.evansville.edu/
Lucie-Smith, Edward. American Realism. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1994. Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. Rev. ed. Vol.2.
New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1995. 973-974. Yaeger, Bert D.
Fully skilled in many fields Charles Peale was known as an American Leonardo. Living from 1741-1827 Peale was the eldest of 5 children who grew up in Chestertown Maryland (Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography). Because of being a scientist, artist, saddler, watchmaker, silversmith, upholsterer, soldier, politician and inventor, Charles Peale earned the title of a true enlightenment man. Inventing a new type of spectacles, porcelain false teeth, a steam bath and a stove that consumed its own smoke, Peale certainly was superiorly innovative (Strickland 72). While being trained in the trade of saddle making, Peale decided, at the age of 21, that painting would be a better route to take. In 1776 he settled in Philadelphia and during the American revolutionary war, Peale served as a militia officer from 1776-1778 and continued to paint throughout this whole time. With his three wives, Rachel Brewer, Elizabeth DePeyster and Hannah Moore, Peale had 17 children (Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography). Due to his insatiable interest and curiosity Willson Peale founded a natural history museum...
This work shows impeccably drawn beech and basswood trees. It was painted for a New York collector by the name of Abraham M. Cozzens who was then a member of the executive committee of the American Art-Union. The painting shows a new trend in the work of the Hudson River School. It depicts a scene showing a tranquil mood. Durand was influenced by the work of the English landscape painter John Constable, whose vertical formats and truth to nature he absorbed while visiting England in 1840.
In the era where Thomas Cole first established the Hudson River School, other artist that is not from the United State such as John Constable, has the same taste in nature and outdoors. John Constable who is from England, created many painting from the surrounding area from his backyard to the countryside. For Cole’s painting, his work of art has been throughout the Hudson River, therefore, his painting consist of vast amount of forest, river, and mountains. He also travels in many locations in America and even done some painting in Europe. Both painter love nature, for this example, landscape will be the primary focus.
Beginning his career as an artist early in life, Turners father provided his young son his first exhibition space, hanging and selling Turners works in the family Barbershop. Turners’ early experiences in art were limited and largely self-taught until entering the Royal Academy Schools in 1789 at the age of 14. From 1790 onwards Turner was heavily influences by architectural draftsman and teacher of perspective, Thomas Malton, a man Turner described as his ‘real master.’ The influence of Malton is clear in Turners superb architectural renderings that frequent his landscapes, being praised by the London Times of the 3rd of May 1797 for his ‘exquisite architectural views. ’
Norman Rockwell is best known for his depictions of dail life of a rural America. Rockwell’s goals in art revolved around his desire to create an ideal America. He said “ I paint life as I would like it to be.”
Grant Wood is a famous philosopher who was born in February in the year 1891 in Anamosa, Iowa. Wood was born to Quaker parents on a small farm. This experience would be the basis of his iconic images of small-town plain folk and verdant Midwestern vistas. He later moved to Cedar Rapids after the death of his father in 1901. He first studied at the Minneapolis School of design between 1910 and 1911 and became a professional designer while attending night courses at the University of Iowa and at the Art Institute of Chicago. At the end of 1915 he gave up designing and returned to Cedar Rapids. After his military service he taught painting and drawing at the public school of Cedar Rapids and visited Paris in 1920 with Marvin Cone. His early works were outdoor scenes combining a bright Fauve palette and a loose, impressionistic style - the result of a 1923-24 trip to Italy and Paris, which included study at the Academie Julian. He visited Europe again in 1928 and notably went to Germany and Holland where he discovered German and Dutch primitive painters to whom he borrowed many facets. Wood was appointed head of the Iowa Works Progress Administration-Federal Arts project in 1934 and also taught at the University of Iowa.
Along the far left bank you see a single brick red chimney with a low roof as light wafts of smoke drift toward the left. In the bottom right corner, we see a bit of the bank the perspective is from and bits of grass are also leaning to the left, so one is given the picture of a nice day with at least slight breeze. Towards the center of the painting, you can see large boulders, smoothed, rising out of the river. Far into the distance, past the bank of the river, onto a higher level of the valley area, you see small gathers specks and shapes that represents a small mountain village.
I chose the two paintings, The Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak by Albert Bierstadt and Trail Riders by Thomas Hart Benton. The first painting was released in 1863, after the artist took a journey through the American west in the 1850’s. It’s easy to assume his inspiration was based off of what he saw on his trip (The Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak). I believe he just wanted to share the beauty of what he saw and this was a way he was good at and knew how to do. Trail Riders was a painting released in 1964/65. Thomas Hart Benton was a Midwesterner (Thomas Hart Benton Trail Riders). So even though there is no actual proof, I assume his painting is based off of his home and what he’s seen.
Gardner, Helen, and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective. N.p., 2014. Print.
Magill, Frank N., Magill's Survey: American Literature Realism to 1945. California: Salem Press, Inc., 1963.
He created a style of architecture to reflect America’s character. The central themes of his style were the landscape, people, and democracy in America. His style was heavily influenced by the midwest, the region where he grew up. His houses aimed to encourage the inhabitants to connect and communicate with one another. The hearth, dining room, and terrace all exemplify this, creating, and open, warm and welcoming space.
Thomas Cole was born on February 1, 1801 in Bolton, Lancashire, England. Due to financial problems his family endured, Cole, at the ripe old age of just fourteen, had to find work to assist with the family needs. He entered the work force as a textile printer and wood engraver in Philadelphia. In 1819, Cole returned to Ohio where his parents resided. Here, a portrait painter by the name of Stein, would become Cole’s primary teaching vehicle and inspiration for his oil techniques we’ve come to be familiar with. During this time, Cole was extremely impressed by what he saw in the landscapes of the New World and how different they were from the small town of England from whence he hailed. Self taught, art came naturally to Cole.
American Literary Realism, 1870-1910. Vol. 8, Issue 1 - "The 'Standard' University of Texas, 1975. http://www.ut Gilman, Charlotte.
Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect, who was a pioneer in the modern style, is considered one of the greatest figures in 20th-century architecture. Wright was born June 8, 1867, in Richland Center, Wisconsin. When he entered the University of Wisconsin in 1884 his interest in architecture had already acknowledged itself. The university offered no courses in his chosen field; however, he enrolled in civil engineering and gained some practical experience by working part time on a construction project at the university. In 1887 he left school and went to Chicago where he became a designer for the firm of Adler and Sullivan with a pay of twenty-five dollars a week. Soon Wright became Louis Sullivan’s chief assistant. Louis Sullivan, Chicago based architect, one of America’s advanced designers. Louis had a profound influence on Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright was assigned most of the firm’s home projects, but to pay his many debts he designed ‘Bootlegged Houses’ for private clients in his spare time. Sullivan disapproved, resulting in Wright leaving the firm in 1893 to establish his own office in Chicago.
Frank Lloyd Wright has been called “one of the greatest American architect as well as an Art dealer that produced a numerous buildings, including houses, resorts, gardens, office buildings, churches, banks and museums. Wright was the first architect that pursues a philosophy of truly organic architecture that responds to the symphonies and harmonies in human habitats to their natural world. He was the apprentice of “father of Modernism” Louis Sullivan, and he was also one of the most influential architects on 20th century in America, Wright is idealist with the use of elemental theme and nature materials (stone, wood, and water), the use of sky and prairie, as well as the use of geometrical lines in his buildings planning. He also defined a building as ‘being appropriate to place’ if it is in harmony with its natural environment, with the landscape (Larkin and Brooks, 1993).