$100,000
Estimate: $150,000 - $250,000
Fine American & European Paintings
Auction: June 24, 2007 3:00:00 PM EDT
Signed and dated 'T. Cole 1825' bottom right, oil on canvas
12 x 16 in. (30.5 x 40.6cm)
Provenance: Kennedy Galleries Inc., New York, New York.
note:
Generally credited as the founder of the Hudson River School, Thomas Cole arrived in New York in 1825 after spending two years in Ohio and a brief period in Philadelphia. In late summer/early autumn 1825, he set out on his first of many sketching trips up the Hudson River, including stops at the Highlands, West Point, the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers and the Kaaterskill Falls in the Catskills. He returned to New York by the end of September 1825 to transfer his Hudson River sketches to canvas. The present autumnal scene is likely derived from a sketch made during this trip. Cole sold his first five paintings made from this sketching trip, and became a founding member of the National Academy of Design in 1826 (Ellwood Parry, The Art of Thomas Cole: Ambition and Imagination, Newark, 1988, pp. 22-3, 373-4). Cole went on to achieve fame and notoriety, ultimately inspiring later generations of landscape painters who sought to depict America’s untamed, rugged beauty.