Thomas Cole (American, born English, 1801-1848), The Architect’s Dream, 1840. Oil on canvas. 53 x 84 ½ in. Toledo Museum of Art. Purchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott, 1949.162
An architect commissions a landscape artist to paint a landscape. The artist himself has practiced as an architect and proceeds to paint this month’s painting, The Architect’s Dream.
It is rejected by the client as “too architectural.”
This exhibition, curated by noted scholar Annette Blaugrund with the assistance of associate curator Kate Menconeri, includes 29 paintings and drawings, as well as a scale model and the artist’s books about architecture. Central to the show is The Architect’s Dream (1841, oil on canvas, 53” by 84”) by Thomas Cole. It’s on loan from the Toledo Museum of Art, which is lending this unusually large painting for the first time since the 1990s.
I have always thought that Cole (1801-1848) was a bit eccentric, and his work is full of unusual pictorial devices.
As a self-taught artist, Cole relied on the various manuals of the craft, close examination of any original painting and studying and making copies of great European paintings, based on copies brought to the U.S. for teaching purposes.
Cole’s method of painting was to carefully work up a drawing, often on a colored ground – salmon pink was a favorite tone – then, on this base, develop a monochrome under-painting. When this was thoroughly dry, colors would be applied as transparent layers of paint called glazes.
This was a standard practice in many academic workshops, and there were minor variations of this indirect painting. It gave painters the smooth look that was fashionable at the time. Some artists went so far as to “brown” a painting by giving the whole painting a golden brown glaze. This was to give the work an old master sense to it.
If you have the chance over the holiday period, take a a walk through the Ohio Statehouse. I think you will be pleasantly surprised to see the breadth and strength of color used, a perfect tonic for many of today’s drab interiors.
Michael McEwan teaches oil painting classes in his Summit Street studio. His paintings are available exclusively from Keny Galleries. Learn more at www.michaelmcewan.com.
Thomas Cole: The Artist as Architect
Columbus Museum of Art
Through Feb. 1
