Lake with Dead Trees (Catskill), 1825 Thomas Cole

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Lake with Dead Trees (Catskill), 1825 foreground, and the Catskill Mountains in the background. Thomas Cole (American, born in England, 1801-1848) The colors of the setting sun cast a soft Oil on canvas | 27 x 33 3/4 in. (68.6 x 85.8 cm) glow on the trees, while ominous clouds ﬂ oat in the darkening sky. Two deer are What is the general tone VISUAL ANALYSIS frozen in the midst of running through or mood of this painting? Lake with Dead Trees (Catskill) is one the woods, caught in the viewer’s gaze. of Thomas Cole’s most well-known Cole’s subdued, soft use of color and works of the period and one of three careful balance of composition are paintings that effectively launched his characteristic of his early paintings— artistic career. Painted in 1825, from both elements work to frame and sketches made during his very ﬁ rst illuminate the delicacy of the lake, as visit to the Hudson River Valley, the well as infuse a Romantic, idealized piece evokes a tranquil lake framed by notion of landscape into the scene. dying, barren trees on the sides and The texture and sheen of the paint are

www.oberlin.edu/amam Copyright 2008 © Oberlin College Allen Memorial Art Museum TC: 1 Why do you think that visible, and impasto, or a thick building inevitable onset of death. The trees undeveloped land was up of paint, can be found in areas like themselves are a particular trademark of particular interest to the trees on the left and in the sky. of Cole’s, and may refer to the onset of the Hudson River School the lumber industry. Their grotesque, painters? FUNCTION/FORM & STYLE curling branches also echo the subtle Cole’s portrayal is a clear, naturalistic, form of the deers’ antlers. In fact, most yet also idealized depiction of American of the imagery in the painting—the “wilderness,” and thus served to stir a movement of the clouds and sky, the sense of national pride in the American trees, the setting sun—represents the viewer in an age of territorial expansion passage of time, and the transition and industrial development. Yet, from life to death, again implying the simultaneously, the idyllic, untouched environmental transitions of landscapes and uncorrupted quality of the land from scenic to industrialized. implies the threat of destruction by industry, and the increasing materialism CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL of Americans throughout the 19th IMPORTANCE century. This kind of imagery and The Hudson River School was a group of subject matter became a trademark of mid-19th century (c. 1830-1870) painters a school of painters founded by Cole, that celebrated the raw, powerful called the Hudson River School. beauty of the American landscape and the perfection and grandeur of nature. Much of the iconography in Lake with They mainly focused on the Hudson Dead Trees expresses this threat of River Valley and areas surrounding the destruction, and the diffi cult paradox Catskill Mountains. These painters were faced by Americans that still resonates infl uenced by British landscape painters today: the need to expand and use such as Turner and Constable, as well natural resources, versus the desire to as British ideas of romanticism and preserve the most picturesque aspects pastoral settings. This also coincided with of the American environment. The American Transcendentalist thinkers like dead and decaying trees portrayed in Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David the painting fi gure prominently in the Thoreau, both of whom had infl uence concept of the fragility of life and the on the movement. Thomas Cole is

VOCABULARY

Idyllic: Charmingly simple or rustic.

Impasto: The application of thick layers of pigment to a canvas or other surface in painting.

Patrons: Those who support, protect, or champion someone or something, such as an institution, event or cause; a sponsor or benefactor.

Picturesque: Visually charming or quaint, as if resembling or suitable for a painting.

Transcendentalism: The literary and philosophical movement propagated by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller, asserting the existence of an ideal spiritual reality that transcends the empirical and scientiﬁ c and is knowable through intuition.

www.oberlin.edu/amam Copyright 2008 © Oberlin College Allen Memorial Art Museum TC: 2 OHIO ACADEMIC generally regarded as the leader of Revolution, new technology such as CONTENT STANDARDS the movement, and he was joined by railroads, canals, and wagon trails, artists such as Asher B. Durand, Albert helped further westward expansion. In Study of this work and its Bierstadt, John Casilear, Frederic E. fact, Cole painted Lake with Dead Trees related classroom activities Church, and William Cullen Bryant. the same year the Erie Canal meets some or all of the was completed. following K-12 benchmarks: By the mid-19th century, history painting as a dominant genre had gone into Americans had very resourceful and Language Arts: decline. Many artists and thinkers were territorial views on land, and Cole Acquisition of Vocabulary; wondering what kinds of images could was truly the ﬁ rst artist to paint Concepts of Print, represent America’s national identity, America’s landscapes in order to make Comprehension Strategies and evoke a sense of nationalistic pride Americans see them in a manner other and Self-Monitoring in American viewers. At this time, new than practical. Therefore, it became Strategies; Informational, landscapes were being discovered as logical to turn to America’s scenic Technical, and Persuasive Americans ventured farther westward. landscapes that hadn’t been corrupted Text; Literary Text; Land was being used in new ways by by industrialization, as ideal images to Writing Process; Writing pioneers, settlers, expansionists, and portray the new, growing United States Applications; Research; the government, without regard to of America. Communications: Oral the people—Native Americans—who and Visual were the original inhabitants. The ARTIST BIOGRAPHY United States was also dealing with the Thomas Cole is arguably the premier Sciences: Earth Science; political and social effects of Jacksonian American landscape painter of the 19th Life Sciences; Science America and populism, under President century. Born in England at the dawn of and Technology Andrew Jackson. During the Industrial the Industrial Revolution, he grew up in a

Social Studies: History; People in Societies; CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS Geography; Economics; Skills and Methods LANGUAGE ARTS: Research Romanticism as a movement and as an ideal that can be found in all kinds of art forms. What are some of its main qualities and Visual Art: Historical, characteristics? Who are some major Romantic ﬁ gures in art, literature, and Cultural, and Social music? Why? (High School) Contexts; Analyzing and Responding; Valuing SCIENCE: Explore the Industrial Revolution and its effects on land in the 19th the Arts/Aesthetic century. Were there some forms of industrialization (i.e. railroads, factories, Reﬂ ection; Connections, etc.) that polluted more than others? What were they and what caused this? Relationships, and (Middle and High School) Applications SOCIAL STUDIES: Study the technologies that were most important in starting the Industrial Revolution. How aware or concerned were average American citizens about industrial expansion? Did artists help raise that awareness? (Middle and High School)

Research the Hudson River School in more detail. What did these artists have in common, both professionally and personally? Can you ﬁ nd other landscapes of the Catskills to compare and contrast to Cole’s? (Middle and High School)

VISUAL ARTS: Cole was one of the ﬁ rst American landscape painters to leave the studio and paint from nature, in order to gain a true feel and experience of the land. Leave your classroom or studio, and go outside to draw or paint a scene from nature. How does this change your working process and art, if at all? (All Ages)

www.oberlin.edu/amam Copyright 2008 © Oberlin College Allen Memorial Art Museum TC: 3 working class family involved in textile with Dead Trees was one of three early manufacturing, and so from an early landscape paintings that garnered age, was well-informed of the effects attention and helped launch Cole’s of industrialization and progress. Cole’s career and popularity. family immigrated to Philadelphia in 1818, but then moved on to Ohio. In London, 1829, Cole met J.M.W. Turner and John Constable, two very Cole later returned to Philadelphia, well-known, highly inﬂ uential British where he was greatly inﬂ uenced by landscape artists. A little more than 10 painters like Gilbert Stuart, Thomas years later, he traveled to Italy, and Sully, and Thomas Doughty. As a worked there for two years painting painter, he was largely self-taught landscapes, incorporating what he and never received formal training. learned into his later American works. Eventually, Cole moved to New York After gaining a substantial following City, where he began to sell a few of artists who made up the Hudson landscape paintings. There, he was River School, Cole was nominated for helped tremendously by John Trumbull, membership in the American Academy president of the American Academy of Fine Arts by Samuel Morse, and later of Fine Arts, who introduced him to became a “charter member” of the many wealthy American patrons. Lake National Academy of Design.