Thomas Cole Giclée Fine Art Prints 1 of 3

He yearned for more than visual tributes to American topography - he aspired to evoke moral and religious significance through the canvas. That ambition, shaped by both personal conviction and the lukewarm response to his early forays into allegorical landscapes, pushed him to cross the Atlantic in 1829. In England, he viewed the works of Old Masters and mingled with luminaries such as Joseph Mallord William Turner and John Constable. Continuing on to France and Italy, he immersed himself in the dramatic scenery of Rome and Florence, devising plans for an epic series on the rise and decline of an imagined civilization. When he returned to the United States in 1832, he coaxed the retired merchant Luman Reed into sponsoring this grand concept, giving shape to "The Course of Empire" by 1836.

Notwithstanding this complex pursuit, his origins were far more modest. Born on February 1, 1801, in Bolton-le-Moor, England, he spent his youth as an engraver’s assistant and an apprentice to a designer of calico prints. These apprenticeships instilled in him a respect for detail and an enduring fascination with how art could capture the rhythms of natural forms. In 1818, he joined his family in emigrating to the United States. A brief stay in Philadelphia gave him some experience in engraving, though he soon ventured westward to Steubenville, Ohio, where his family had settled.

The seeds of his future career were planted in Ohio, thanks to an itinerant portrait painter named Stein. Under Stein’s informal instruction, he picked up the basics of oil painting and began to see the landscape as something more than a mere backdrop. In 1823, he spent time in Pittsburgh, honing his powers of observation by sketching trees and branches with an eye for both emotional weight and structural integrity. By the end of that year, he was back in Philadelphia, where he enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts while working in various art-related jobs.

In April 1825, a decisive shift occurred when he relocated to New York, which promised a more receptive environment for an ambitious young painter. That summer, he undertook a sketching tour along the Hudson River and into the Catskill Mountains. Soon, three of his landscapes drew the attention of John Trumbull, William Dunlap, and Asher B. Durand, each of whom purchased one. This was a signal moment for the artist, who was subsequently elected a founding member of the National Academy of Design in January 1826. By the late 1820s, his works found favor with influential patrons like Daniel Wadsworth and Robert Gilmor, Jr.

Returning from Europe with heightened aspirations, he transformed his idea for a multi-canvas allegory into "The Course of Empire," completed in 1836. These five paintings stirred public interest by cautioning viewers about the vanity of human achievements. During the same period, he produced other ambitious works, including "The Voyage of Life," in two different versions, and pieces like "The Departure" and "The Return." The breadth of his imagination set him apart from contemporaries whose landscapes were often limited to picturesque reproductions of the New World’s vistas.

In 1836, he married Maria Barstow and settled in Catskill, New York, within sight of the imposing Catskill Mountains. Surrounded by this dramatic setting, he wrote and published his "Essay on American Scenery," an articulate statement of his belief in the spiritual power of the American wilderness. Here, he set forth his conviction that landscape painting could transcend prettiness and venture into the realm of the profound, serving as a conduit for national identity and individual reflection.

A second European excursion followed in 1841. Italy once again beckoned, this time drawing him southward to Sicily, where the volcanic majesty of Mt. Etna inspired further paintings. After returning to Catskill in 1842, he took on an eager student - Frederic Edwin Church, a young talent who would later make his own mark on American landscape painting. By the mid-1840s, his depictions of American scenery were notable for their increasingly precise attention to light and atmosphere, even as he struggled in vain to complete another extensive series, "The Cross and the World."

He died unexpectedly on February 11, 1848, provoking a surge of public sorrow and leading to a memorial exhibition in New York. The reverberations of his work reached into the late 1840s and 1850s, influencing a new generation of painters such as Jasper F. Cropsey and Church. From a youth spent engraving calico designs to a maturity steeped in allegorical ambition, he shaped a uniquely American approach to landscape, one where the sweep of mountains and sky could embody the moral imagination of an emerging nation.