Thomas Cole (1801-1848)
Date:
1823
Medium:
Ink on paper
Dimensions:
13 1/2 H x 16 7/8 W
Inscription:
Inscribed, lower left: Button Wood Tree / May 16th 1823; reverse, center: T.A. Cole
Provenance:
Descended in the Cole Family to Mrs. Florence H. Cole Vincent, the artist's granddaughter.
Credit:
Gift of Mrs. Florence Cole Vincent
Accession Number:
1958.28.36
Comments:
This is the earliest dated drawing by Cole made from nature. It was done in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the banks of the Monongahela River. Cole traveled widely over the entire Hudson Valley region, producing all types of drawings in a wide variety of media. As the acknowledged founder of the Hudson River school of painting, he had an enormous influence on the drawings of later American landscape artists. Basing his study of nature on contemporary European artistic and scientific thought, Cole helped bring those ideas to America
