Cole, Thomas (1801-1848)

US painter. He was a founder and leading member of the Hudson River School of landscape artists. Apart from panoramic views such as his magnificent The Oxbow (1836; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), he painted a dramatic historical series, including The Course of Empire (1836; New York Historical Society). Influenced by the European artists Claude Lorrain, J M W Turner, and John Martin, Cole was considered the first important US landscape painter.

Born in Bolton, Lancashire, in England, he emigrated with his family to Ohio in 1819, where he worked as wood engraver. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, before moving to New York, and settling at the village of Catskill on the west bank of the Hudson in 1826. Although not greatly concerned with new artistic techniques, Cole developed a skill in rendering spacious and romantic views which won him great success, In the Catskills (New York Metropolitan Museum) being an example. As a result of his popularity, many artists flocked to the unspoiled Hudson Valley to paint, giving rise to the Hudson River School. Between 1829 and 1832 he travelled to England and Italy, and returned with larger Romantic ambitions, producing a series of landscape allegories (The Voyage of Life, The Course of Empire) and nostalgic Italian compositions. He wrote ‘An Essay on American Scenery’ 1835.