by Roderick Conway Morris
‘The painter of American scenery has indeed privileges superior to any other. all nature is here new to art,’ wrote the English-born Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School of painters and father of landscape art in the New World. he is now regarded as one of the leading figures of 19th-century america, but he did not arrive there until he was in his late teens nor become a citizen until his early thirties.
Yet, while he is a household name in his adopted country, he is now little known in his native land. that this has been our loss is highlighted by a splendid exhibition at the national Gallery, curated by Christopher riopelle, and containing nearly 60 works by Cole, most of which have never been seen here before, along with canvases by contemporary artists such as turner and Constable, whom Cole met and who clearly influenced him.
Cole was born into a well- educated family in Bolton – part of lancashire at the time – in 1801. the rapid industrialisation of the region was despoiling large areas of countryside, and this along with violent outbreaks of disorder led by the anti-machine luddites made of him a pioneering, life-long, proto- environmentalist and critic of the human cost of ‘progress’. When the family fell on hard times, thomas was obliged to find work as an apprentice engraver, and in 1818 he and the whole family emigrated to america.
although self-taught as a painter, he achieved a remarkable level of skill. he made his first trip up the hudson river in 1825 and three paintings he did of the Catskill mountains caught the eye of buyers hungry for distinctively american art. one of these was john trumbull, President of the american academy of the Fine arts, whose support was decisive in launching Cole’s career.
after a study trip to europe, from 1829 to 1832, Cole enjoyed ever-growing renown as a painter of spectacular canvases of the magnificent scenery of the hudson river Valley.
Cole also turned out to be brilliant teacher, nurturing the talents of other landscape painters, notably asher Brown durand and Frederic edwin Church. Yet before his untimely death at the age of 47, Cole had already become deeply troubled about the ruination, in the name of progress and profit, of the pristine american wilderness that had originally inspired him to become america’s first great landscape artist.
u Until 7 October at the National Gallery, London; 020-7747 2885, nationalgallery.org. uk
