Documents Project #1
Project
Title: Thomas Cole and "Falls of the
Kaaterskill"
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Document:
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Source:
Thomas Cole,
"Falls of the Kaaterskill," 1826, 43 inches high by 36 inches wide, oil
paint on canvas, currently in a private collection at the Warner Collection of Gulf States Paper Corporation
in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Background:
American artists
of the early 19th Century traveled to the wilderness in search of
subjects for their realistic and detailed landscape paintings. At
first,
they only had to go as
far as the
Catskill Mountains to find real wilderness. Thomas Cole's
painting "Falls of the Kaaterskill" was painted not far from Salesian
High School, over the Tappan Zee Bridge, up the Thruway, just past
Kingston (see the map below). Thomas Cole was a founder of
America's first art movement, the
Hudson River School. These artists focused on America's
untamed wilderness and saw nature as a manifestation of God. For
more information, visit the website of the home of Thomas Cole in
Catskill, NY by clicking http://www.thomascole.org/.
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Document:
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Questions:
- Describe the season and the weather shown in this painting. Why do you think Thomas Cole painted the weather this way?
- One person appears in this painting. What kind of person is he or she? Describe how the artist painted this person. Why do you think Cole did this?
- The artist uses light very dramatically. Describe where the artist shines his spotlight. Why might he have done this?
- Thomas Cole wrote that if nature were untouched by the hand of man then man could become more easily acquainted with the hand of God. Yet, while the Hudson River artists were creating their paintings, America was becoming more industrialized and cities like New York were growing. What was the message of the Hudson River painters about this?
- How did the wilderness paintings of the Hudson River School artists help form a sense of national identity?