COLE, Thomas, American landscape painter: b. Bolton-le-Moor, England, 1 Feb. 1801; d. Catskill, N. Y., 11 Feb. 1E48. In 1819 his father and family emigrated to America. Here Cole began work as a wood engraver in Philadelphia, while his family went on to the West. In 1820 he followed them to Steubenville, Ohio, where he spent two years. He helped his father's wallpaper business by mixing colors and designing patterns. But he had always de lighted in natural scenery and he was greatly interested in the surrounding landscape. His attention turned to painting and after a while he left home and after some wandering he came to New York in 1825. Here after a win ter's work he sold some pictures, which enabled him to make a trip up the Hudson, already famous for its picturesque and romantic scenery. On his return he sold three pictures to Colonel Trumbull, William Dunlap and A. B. Durand, and this introduction gave him a defi nite position in American landscape painting, where he soon became a leader. In 1829, feel ing a need for study of the recog-nized masters of landscape he went ahroad. He went first to England and then to Italy. For almost four years he painted earnestly and studied the works of the painters whom he admired. He did not, however, attach himself to any one master nor did he copy many paintings; he re ceived impressions on art and formed ideas but did not labor for advance in any particular kind of technical slcill. The results of his tour were natural. Before leaving America he had had for his chief ideal the presentation of nature as.he saw it. While he was abroad his
mind turned more to a rendering of thoughts .and ideas. On his return to America he painted thc series of pictures called (The Course of Empire) and some years afterward another series called (The Voyage of Life,' besides a number of other pictures in which his concep tions and ideas found almost allegorical ex pression. He also painted many purely Ameri can landscapes which became widely known, but the ideal pictures he came to think his great est and most representative work. The general estimate, however, has been different; these ideal works have been neglected and Cok's chief work has been found in his purely Ameri can landscape. Cole will always be thought of as the leader of those earlier artists who de voted themselves to a presentation of the natural beauty of their country with a genius and a slcill that delighted their own day and gave rise to a movement that has become rather the most characteristic thing in American painting. Cole was the leader and representa tive of the first group of American landscape painters, often loosely called the "Hudson River School.) The latter part of his life he lived at Catskill, N. Y. There is no recent life of Cole. 'The Life and Works of Thomas Cole' bv L. L. Noble, written shortly after Cole's death, gives a valuable but contemporary view.