The Life and Works of Thomas Cole

by Louis Legrand Noble, Elliot S. Vesell (Editor)

During his peak popularity in the 1820s -1840s, artists flocked to New York's Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley to confront the wilderness and emulate Cole's vision, and America's first indiginous art movement was born--the Hudson River School of landscape painting.

Genres: Art, History, Nonfiction

324 pages, Paperback

First published February 5, 1964

About the author

Louis Legrand Noble, clergyman, born in Lisbon, New York, 26 September, 1813; died in Ionia, Michigan, 6 February, 1882. He was graduated at Bristol college, Pennsylvania, in 1837, and at the General theological seminary in New York city in 1840, was ordained deacon, 28 June, 1840, by Bishop Benjamin Tredwell Onderdonk, and priest, 4 June, 1841, by Bishop Levi Silliman Ives. He was assistant minister in St. Peter's church, Albany, New York, in 1840, rector of Christ church, Elizabeth City, North Carolina, in 1841-'4, rector of St. Luke's church, Catskill, New York, in 1844, of Grace Church, Chicago, Illinois, in 1855, of the Church of the Messiah, Glenn's Falls, New York, in 1856, of Trinity church, Fredonia, New York, in 1857, of Christ church, Hudson, N. g., in 1859, and of St. John's church, Ionia, Michigan, in 1880. In addition to parochial work, Mr. Noble also served as professor of English and history in St. Stephen's college, Annandale, New York, being appointed in 1874. Besides shorter poems, he published " Ne-Ma-Min, an Indian Story," in three cantos (1852); "The Course of Empire, Voyage of Life, and other Pictures of Thomas Cole, N. A., with Selections from his Letters and Miscellaneous Writings, Illustrative of his Life, Character, and Genius" (New York, 1853); " The Lady Angeline, a Lay of the Appalachians; the Hours, and other Poems" (1857) ; and "A Voyage to the Arctic Seas in Search of Icebergs, with Church, the Artist " (1861).

Reviews

[Vfields Don't touch my happy! · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up at the library and I think I'm armed, ready and downright excited for the openning of the Thomas Cole exhibit tonight. Noble overall avoided being overly dry and covered Cole's life throughly.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's odd to me that Noble's 1853 paste-up biography of Thomas Cole still seems to be the definitive work on Cole. It's letters, diary entries, and some somewhat pious connective text that I thought I'd find abrasive after a while, but really didn't. What an interesting read, and such a shame that he died at 47. In the letters, you find his rationale behind most of his major works, as well as an interesting and complex relationship with landscape in general. Recommended to anyone interested in landscape and landscape theory; it's not just for painting nerds.