Thomas Cole at the MET
By Adrienne
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The paintings by Thomas Cole on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, mark a celebration of the 200th anniversary of Cole’s arrival in America in 1818, from England. Cole is most often attributed as pioneering the defining aesthetic of the New Country with his sublime landscapes of the American wilderness. His works draw from that of the prominent british artists of the likes of William Turner, John Constable and John Martin, whose paintings of industrialized Great Britain, made a great impact on the approach and content of Cole’s paintings.
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Having grown up in the ever so industrialized outskirts of Manchester, and worked in the textile industry, Cole was surrounded by a changing world, fixated on the progress of the mechanization of labor and industry. He very well may have come in contact with figures involved in the Luddite Rebellion of 1811-1816, and would have known of the rebellion’s nature. Interestingly enough, as pointed out to our group by the co-curator of the exhibition, Tim Barringer, the textiles designed and produced by Cole’s family are similar to that of the dress worn by the figure in the satirical print titled The Leader of the Luddites. It is not unlikely that the Luddite Rebellion, alongside his experience in industrialized England influenced his later works of the American wilderness, in which he was increasingly critical of the expansionist politics of president Andrew Jackson.
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From early on, Cole’s fascination with the vast American landscape was tinged with the encroaching fear of unchecked industrial development and warned of the ecological costs involved in the process of industrialization. His exemplification of the sublime of nature within his works, such as is 1827 piece View of the Round Top in the Catskill Mountains, mark the stylistic and aesthetic qualities that would later be attributed to American Romanticism, known as the Hudson River School. The painting View of the Round Top in the Catskill Mountains, demonstrates both Cole’s technical abilities, while exhibiting his aesthetic sensibilities founded on the sublime enormity of the natural world at threat by the encroaching doctrine of Manifest Destiny.
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His regard for the sublime can be traced back comparatively to his studying of the work of William Turner, a british painter whose work focused on the sublime power of the industrial scene. In both cases, the sublime is employed in a programmatic manner to emphasize the spectacle of nature versus industrial progress, which can also be viewed in a colonial, American versus England sense. The extent influence from british painters within Cole’s work, can be viewed quite remarkably within his ambitious 1833-36 work, The Course of Empire. As noted by its title, in this work Cole sought to create a temporal panorama flowing from the inception of man, to the early pastoral state, to the rise of empire its inevitable destruction and aftermath. Viewed as a whole, The Course Of Empire, shows great vision and detail, however it is not until the paintings are contextualized in their relationship to the works of Constable and Turner, that their significance is truly articulated.
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John Constable’s Opening of Waterloo Bridge 1817, possesses a striking similarity to Cole’s Consummation piece from The Course Of Empire, in that they both seemingly exult the rise of civilization and celebrate the industrial powers of a new and powerful empire. Interestingly enough, as pointed out by Barringer, Cole had a keen interest in Constable’s painting, with the Opening of Waterloo Bridge being one of particular concern in Cole’s early study of painting. Similarly this resemblance follows suit within Cole’s Desolation as it draws heavily from the picotral orientation and iconography of Constable’s Hadleigh Castle, The Mouth of the Thames-Morning after a Stormy Night, 1829, as well as in Destruction which holds an uncanny verisimilitude to William Turner’s Snow Storm- Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps, 1812. What is particular about the resemblance within Cole’s work of the work of Turner and Constable, is that it is evident that there is a strong compositional similarity between them, which points to the extent to which Cole studied these works and sought to emulate their particular aura within his own later paintings. As noted by Barringer, it is a unique instance to be able to behold Cole’s The Course Of Empire, alongside pieces by Constable and Turner which bore a heavy influence upon it- all in the same room. Barringer chose to display these works on the opposite sides of the exhibition room, as a means of facilitating a comparative viewing and synthesis of the works.
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Also on display is one of Cole’s most recognized paintings, standing as a beacon for his anti-expansionist politics and is desire for a conscious preservation of the American wilderness, The Oxbow, 1836. Known as View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, After a Thunderstorm- The Oxbow, this painting addresses a series of ideological tensions that Cole confronted. From afar the painting contrasts the virgin wilderness on the left to the traded agricultural lands cultivated in neat square plots on the left. Front in center the oxbow, winds through the landscape, creating a stark visual contrast between the left and right sides of the painting. Curiously, as Barringer suggested, the Oxbow likewise appears visually as a large, land a fixed question mark, that straddles the border between wilderness and farmland, nature and man. With this in mind, Cole seems to be directly imposing his ideological framework into the painting, forcing the viewer to consider the roles of industry, civilization and progress in vain of the picturesque rural landscapes that Cole has exemplified time and time again. In the foreground, nearly hidden by the large mountainside rocks, there is a figure turned towards the viewer with his back to the landscape. He has on a hat and looks to be painting the oxbow on an easel- this figure could very likely be Cole himself, painting himself painting, within the painting that he painted himself painting. An obvious metaphorical tactic which imparts a sort of surveillance within the piece, as Cole watches us view and come to understand his work, making us accountable for what we draw from our viewing. The figure in his looking at us, holds both a knowing and a questioning in his face. He seemingly wants us to question our logic and participation in industry in order to recognize what is truly at stake when unethical expansionist policy goes unchecked under the guise of human progress.
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The works of Thomas Cole are not only visually spectacular, but hold a deeply rooted ideological criticism within them. Cole’s life in England brought the dark smoke, dirty streets and close quarters of industry to his doorstep, forging a skepticism toward industrialization that would later become essential to his paintings of the American wilderness.
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