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Conservation of Landscape, Scene from The Last of the Mohicans was made possible by a grant from the Stockman Family Foundation.
Exhibition History“Paintings and Drawings by Thomas Cole,” Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD, January 26 – February 28, 1965, no cat.
“From El Greco to Pollock, Early and Late Works by European and American Artists,” Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD, October 22 – December 8, 1968, cat. no. 53.
“Thomas Cole,” Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, February 14 – March 23, 1969; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY, April 7 – May 4, 1969; Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY, May 9 – June 20, 1969; Whitney Museum of American Art, June 30 – September 1, 1969, cat. no. 12.
“Thomas Cole and His Writer Friends,” Biggs Museum of American Art, Dover, DE, January 1 – December 31, 1998, no cat.
“The 45th Annual Winter Antique Show,” Lenox Hill Station, New York, NY, January 12 – 25, 1999, no cat.
“Thomas Cole and the Garden of Eden,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY, May 25 – September 30, 2018, no cat. no.
BibliographyGertrude Rosenthal, ed., From El Greco to Pollock: Early and Late Works by European and American Artists (exh. cat. Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1968), p. 74, cat. no. 53, ill.
Howard S. Merritt, Thomas Cole (exh. cat. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, 1969), pp. 24, 50, cat. no. 12, ill.
Marcia Clark, “A Visionary Artist who Celebrated Wilds of America,” in Smithsonian, Vol. 6, no. 6 (1975), pp. 94, 95, ill.
Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, “The Exaltation of American Landscape Painting,” in American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School (exh. cat. New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987), p. 25, fig. 2.3, ill.
Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, American Paintings Before 1945 in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Vol. 1 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996), p. 228.
Kaarle-Juhani (Nalle) Valtiala, James Fenimore Cooper's Landscapes in the Leatherstocking Series and Other Forest Tales (Grankulla, Finland: The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, 1998), p. 43, fig. 3, ill.
Gilbert T. Vincent, Paul S. D’Ambrosio et al., A Centennial Celebration: Collections from the New York State Historical Society (Cooperstown, NY: New York State Historical Association, 1999), p. 10, ill.
Mark Sullivan, “Meaning in John F. Kensett’s ‘October Day in the White Mountains,’” in Cleveland Studies in the History of Art, Vol. 6 (2001), pp. 56,57, fig. 7, ill.
Rebecca Bedell, The Anatomy of Nature: Geology and American Landscape Painting, 1825-1875, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001), pp. 25, 26, 29, 33, fig. 13, ill.
Sandra M. Gustafson, Imagining Deliberative Democracy in the Early American Republic (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2011), Dust Jacket, ill.
Bruce W. Dearstyne, “Fictionalizing History,” in New York Archives Magazine, Vol. 15, no. 3 (Winter, 2016), pp. 27, cover, ill.
Carol Troyen, Thomas Cole and the Garden of Eden (exh. cat. Cooperstown, NY: Fenimore Art Museum, 2018), pp. 6, 20, 21, 37, detail, fig. 13, ill
Peter Benjamin, "Race, Violence, and the Textual Politics of the New York Sketch Club," in Archives of American Art Journal, Vol 60, no. 2 (Fall 2021), p. 23, ill.
Franklin Kelly, “Memory and Inspiration: Thomas Cole and the Course of American Landscape Painting,” in Thomas Cole’s Studio: Memory and Inspiration (exh. cat. Catskill, NY: Thomas Cole National Historic Site, 2022), pp. 23-24, fig. 3, ill.
Artist
Thomas Cole
(1801 - 1848)
Related Person
James Fenimore Cooper
(1789 - 1851)
Landscape Scene from "The Last of the Mohicans"
Date1827
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsFramed: 33 1/4 × 43 1/4 × 3 7/8 in. (85.1 × 109.2 × 9.8 cm)
Object numberN0194.1961
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C. Clark
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextCole was a friend of James Fenimore Cooper and was particularly influenced by Cooper’s writings and his painterly descriptions of Lake George as a “Holy Lake.” When Cole was commissioned by the prominent collector, Robert Gilmor, Jr. to paint “some known subject from Cooper’s novels to enliven the landscape,” he chose this scene from chapter 12 of The Last of the Mohicans. His ambitions for this painting reflected his ambitions for landscape painting in general. Cole manipulated the natural forms of rocks and trees to increase the tension in the painting, placing a boulder high above the scene in which Cora and other captives plea for their lives. The rock’s precarious balance over an area of sacred ground for the depicted Native Americans becomes a metaphor for the fate that awaits the captives. Painted less than a year after the novel’s publication, Cole’s work marked the first in a long line of illustrations based upon Cooper’s famous novel set in Lake George. This particular landscape created by Cole does not faithfully depict the contours of Lake George, but rather incorporates various sketches that Cole had made from trips to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Conservation of Landscape, Scene from The Last of the Mohicans was made possible by a grant from the Stockman Family Foundation.
Exhibition History“Paintings and Drawings by Thomas Cole,” Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD, January 26 – February 28, 1965, no cat.
“From El Greco to Pollock, Early and Late Works by European and American Artists,” Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD, October 22 – December 8, 1968, cat. no. 53.
“Thomas Cole,” Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, February 14 – March 23, 1969; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY, April 7 – May 4, 1969; Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY, May 9 – June 20, 1969; Whitney Museum of American Art, June 30 – September 1, 1969, cat. no. 12.
“Thomas Cole and His Writer Friends,” Biggs Museum of American Art, Dover, DE, January 1 – December 31, 1998, no cat.
“The 45th Annual Winter Antique Show,” Lenox Hill Station, New York, NY, January 12 – 25, 1999, no cat.
“Thomas Cole and the Garden of Eden,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY, May 25 – September 30, 2018, no cat. no.
BibliographyGertrude Rosenthal, ed., From El Greco to Pollock: Early and Late Works by European and American Artists (exh. cat. Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1968), p. 74, cat. no. 53, ill.
Howard S. Merritt, Thomas Cole (exh. cat. Rochester, NY: Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, 1969), pp. 24, 50, cat. no. 12, ill.
Marcia Clark, “A Visionary Artist who Celebrated Wilds of America,” in Smithsonian, Vol. 6, no. 6 (1975), pp. 94, 95, ill.
Oswaldo Rodriguez Roque, “The Exaltation of American Landscape Painting,” in American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School (exh. cat. New York, NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987), p. 25, fig. 2.3, ill.
Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, American Paintings Before 1945 in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Vol. 1 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996), p. 228.
Kaarle-Juhani (Nalle) Valtiala, James Fenimore Cooper's Landscapes in the Leatherstocking Series and Other Forest Tales (Grankulla, Finland: The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, 1998), p. 43, fig. 3, ill.
Gilbert T. Vincent, Paul S. D’Ambrosio et al., A Centennial Celebration: Collections from the New York State Historical Society (Cooperstown, NY: New York State Historical Association, 1999), p. 10, ill.
Mark Sullivan, “Meaning in John F. Kensett’s ‘October Day in the White Mountains,’” in Cleveland Studies in the History of Art, Vol. 6 (2001), pp. 56,57, fig. 7, ill.
Rebecca Bedell, The Anatomy of Nature: Geology and American Landscape Painting, 1825-1875, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001), pp. 25, 26, 29, 33, fig. 13, ill.
Sandra M. Gustafson, Imagining Deliberative Democracy in the Early American Republic (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2011), Dust Jacket, ill.
Bruce W. Dearstyne, “Fictionalizing History,” in New York Archives Magazine, Vol. 15, no. 3 (Winter, 2016), pp. 27, cover, ill.
Carol Troyen, Thomas Cole and the Garden of Eden (exh. cat. Cooperstown, NY: Fenimore Art Museum, 2018), pp. 6, 20, 21, 37, detail, fig. 13, ill
Peter Benjamin, "Race, Violence, and the Textual Politics of the New York Sketch Club," in Archives of American Art Journal, Vol 60, no. 2 (Fall 2021), p. 23, ill.
Franklin Kelly, “Memory and Inspiration: Thomas Cole and the Course of American Landscape Painting,” in Thomas Cole’s Studio: Memory and Inspiration (exh. cat. Catskill, NY: Thomas Cole National Historic Site, 2022), pp. 23-24, fig. 3, ill.
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