Thomas Cole’s Catskills

John Walsh
Friday, October 27, 2017, 1:30 pm
Thomas Cole (1801-1848) spent decades living near Catskill Creek, the Hudson River tributary in upstate New York, and he painted the creek with the Catskill Mountains in the distance more often than any other subject. What did these compositions represent to him? This lecture considers Cole’s North Mountain and Catskill Creek of 1838 and other works by the pioneer Romantic painter, whose portrayals of a wild new land were a mix of observation, pictorial tradition, and poetic manipulation. Generously sponsored by the Martin A. Ryerson Lectureship Fund.
In each lecture in this series, John Walsh selects an American painting in the Gallery’s collection and examines the similarities and differences between depiction and reality, returning to the painter’s original vantage point in an attempt to work out just what happened when he returned to the studio.
Note: This lecture is the first in the series American Views, Viewpoints, and Manipulations. All lectures are held in the Robert L. McNeil, Jr., Lecture Hall.