New England Scenery
1839
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
57.1 × 46.7 cm (22 1/2 × 18 3/8 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
57163
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Although Thomas Cole is best known for his scenes of the American wilderness, he also rendered pastoral vistas of cultivated landscapes. This work depicts New Hampshire’s White Mountains, an area that Cole traveled to and painted on numerous occasions, as did other 19th-century landscape artists. The prominent church spire at middle distance emphasizes the role of religion in agrarian society and the glow of the low sun expresses a sense of optimism for a rural America. The painting conveys an i...
About the Artist
Thomas Cole · 1801–1848
Thomas Cole (1801–1848) was an English-born American painter who founded the Hudson River School, the first major American art movement, and became the most influential landscape painter in nineteenth-century American art. Born in Bolton, Lancashire, England, he emigrated with his family to the United States in 1818, settling first in Ohio before moving to Philadelphia and then New York, where he ...