Treasures of Cole's come out of hiding

By Evelyn D. Trebilcock
For the Poughkeepsie Journal

In 1825, Col. John Trumbell, president of the American Academy, an art organization in New York City, found Cole’s early landscapes of the Catskills displayed in the window of the bookseller and art dealer William A. Colman. Trumbell immediately bought one of the paintings and then encouraged writer and artist William Dunlap and the engraver Asher Durand to purchase Cole’s remaining landscapes.

Born in Lancaster, England, Cole emigrated to America with his family in 1818. Even though his early training was as an engraver for the woodblocks used to print calico fabrics, by 1829 Cole already was recognized as America’s leading landscape painter. He was a founding member of the National Academy of Design, wrote an important essay on American scenery, and encouraged the careers of Frederic Church and others.

Cole’s first sketching trip to the Catskills in 1825 was followed by summer stays. Then, when Cole married Maria Bartow in 1836, he settled in Catskill in Greene County, living in his wife’s family home, Cedar Grove.

The farmstead was a wonderful location for a landscape artist, with panoramic views of the Catskill Mountains to the west and south. Cole’s first studio on the site was a converted farm building, but by 1846 he had designed and built a second studio in the popular Italianate style.

Today, Cedar Grove and Cole’s first studio are owned and managed by the Greene County Historical Society and is scheduled to be restored and open to the public by the summer of 2000.