View of Florence
1837
Thomas Cole
Thomas Cole (American, 1801–1848)
American Painting and Sculpture
View of Florence, 1837. Thomas Cole (American, 1801–1848). Oil on canvas; framed: 125.4 x 186.7 x 9.2 cm (49 3/8 x 73 1/2 x 3 5/8 in.); unframed: 99.5 x 160.4 cm (39 3/16 x 63 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1961.39 Cole visited Italy in 1831 and made a small pencil sketch of this vista of Florence shortly before sunset. In his New York studio six years later, he transformed the drawing into this large oil painting, adding picturesque humans and goats to the foreground. Novelist Henry James grew up with this painting and described its foreground monk as his “constant friend.”
- Maker/Artist
- Cole, Thomas
- Classification
- Painting
- Formatted Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 125.4 x 186.7 x 9.2 cm (49 3/8 x 73 1/2 x 3 5/8 in.); Unframed: 99.5 x 160.4 cm (39 3/16 x 63 1/8 in.)
- Inscribed
- Inscription: Signed lower right: "T C"
- Departments
- American Painting and Sculpture
- Accession Number
- 1961.39
- Credit Line
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Exhibitions
- Year in Review (1961), Paintings and Drawings by Thomas Cole, Thomas Cole, Florence and the Arts: Five Centuries of Patronage, 19th Century Americans in Italy, Thomas Cole's Journey: Atlantic Crossings, New York, National Academy of Design, Annual Exhibition (1837), cat. no. 39 as View of Florence.<br>Boston, Athenaeum, Annual Exhibition (1839), cat. no. 123, see The Boston Athenaeum: Art Exhibition Index, 1827-1874 (Boston, 1980), p. 38, listed under year 1839 as View on the Arno, Florence, owned by J. Mason.<br>New York, Gallery of the American Art-Union, Exhibition of the Paintings of the Late Thomas Cole, At the Gallery of the American Art-Union (27 March 1848-?), cat. no. 33, catalogue reproduced as Appendix 1in Parry (1988), pp. 368-372.<br>Boston, Atheneum, Annual Exhibition (1850), cat. no. 137, see The Boston Athenaeum: Art Exhibition Index, 1827-1874 (Boston, 1980), p. 38, listed under year 1850 as View on the Arno, Near Florence owned by T.P. Cushing.<br>New York, New York Gallery of Fine Arts, (1 May 1854) cat. no. 61, p. 10, see Index to American Art Exhibition Catalogues.<br>Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Thomas Cole: Paintings by an American Romanticist (26 January-28 February 1965), cat. no. 14.<br>Rochester, Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Thomas Cole (14 February-23 March 1969); traveled to Utica, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute (7 April-4 May 1969); Albany, Albany Institute of History and Art (9 May-20 June 1969); New York, Whitney Museum of American Art (30 June-1 September 1969), cat. no. 32, illus. p. 83.<br>Lawrence, University of Kansas Museum of Art, The Arcadian Landscape: Nineteenth-Century American Painters in Italy (4 November-3 December 1972), cat. no. 12, illus. <br>Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting 1760-1910 (7 September-13 November 1983); traveled to Washington, D.C., The Corcoran Gallery of Art (7 December 1983-12 February 1984); did not go to Paris; cat. no. 29, pp. 229-230, illus. p. 229. <br>Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, The Lure of Italy: American Artists and The Italian Experience, 1760-1914 (16 September-13 December 1992); traveled to Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art (3 February-11 April 1993); Houston, Museum of Fine Arts (23 May-8 August 1993), cat. no. 76, illus. pp. 330-331, pp. 42-54.<br>The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY (1/29/2018 - 5/13/2018) and the National Gallery, London, UK (6/13/2018 - 10/7/2018): "Thomas Cole's Journey: Atlantic Crossings"
- Rights Statement
- CC0
- Museum Location
- 206 American Landscape
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