News
August 21, 2018Albany Institute of History & Art Extends Thomas Cole Exhibition
In 1818, the youthful Thomas Cole emigrated from his native England to begin a new life in the United States. After several years struggling as an engraver and designer for his parents’ short-lived floor cloth and wallpaper manufactories, he finally embarked on a career as painter of landscapes and settled in the thriving port city of New York. There he found patrons and a welcoming audience for his works that were exhibited at the National Academy of Design and other venues. Now, during the bicentennial year of Cole’s arrival in the United States, this naturalized American artist is being publicly recognized once again at museums and historic sites on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Albany Institute is participating in this international celebration by presenting the exhibition, Thomas Cole’s Paper Trail, which looks at this renowned landscape artist mainly through the paper materials he left behind. The exhibition, which opened on June 16, was originally scheduled to close on October 28, 2018. The Albany Institute, however, has decided to extend the run of the show for an additional month.
“People have been talking about Thomas Cole all year and we are happy to offer an opportunity to continue the conversation by keeping the exhibition up through the end of November,” says chief curator Doug McCombs. “November is one of our busiest months and we would like to have as many people as possible see these rarely shown works on paper before they return to storage. They are really wonderful examples of an artist’s process and the evolution of his remarkable career.”
Selections of Cole’s drawings, prints, letters, hand-written poems, and published works, now part of the collections of the Albany Institute, trace the artist’s career from his first tree studies drawn near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1823 to letters of condolence sent to his family following his sudden and premature death in 1848. The exhibition also includes the seldom seen painting, View of Featherstonhaugh Estate near Duanesburg (1826), along with two letters written by Cole to his early patron and fellow English immigrant, George William Featherstonhaugh, who invited Cole to spend the winter of 1825/26 at his home near Duanesburg, New York. The painting and letter are on loan for this exhibition from the Featherstonhaugh Family Trust and offer a rare look at Cole’s early commissions.
Other paintings by Thomas Cole and works from fellow landscape artists such as Frederic Church, Asher Durand, and Jasper Cropsey can be seen in the adjoining exhibition The Hudson River School: Landscape Paintings from the Albany Institute of History & Art.
Upcoming Program On Sunday, September 16 at 2PM, chief curator Doug McCombs will give a lecture about the exhibition Thomas Cole’s Paper Trail. The lecture is included with museum admission. Seating is limited and attendees are required to get a wristband from the Admission Desk the day of the lecture.
Exhibition Support Exhibition support is provided by Chester and Karen Opalka, Mr. and Mrs. James Featherstonhaugh, William M. Harris and Holly A. Katz, Donna and Fred Hershey, Richard and Karen Nicholson, Martha Waddell Olson, Sara and John Regan, Bart and Patricia Trudeau, Trudeau Architects, Sabrina Ty and Brian Fitzgerald, and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
Season exhibition support is provided by Phoebe Powell Bender, Mr. and Mrs. George R. Hearst III, Charles M. Liddle III, and Lois and David Swawite.
