Thomas Cole (1801–1848)
Distant View of Boston, ca. 1838-39
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Oil on board
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8 ⅝ x 11 ⅞ inches - Framed: 18 3/4 x 22 inches
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On verso: Boston
Provenance
- (Probably) Thomas Cole Studio at Cedar Grove, Florence Cole Vincent
- J. Myers, Canton, Ohio
- Estate of above
- The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, acquired from above, by 1967
- Kennedy Galleries, New York, New York, by 1968
- Vance Jordan Fine Art, New York, New York
- Sale, Skinner, Marlborough, Massachusetts, March 13, 1998, lot 253
- Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, New York
- Private collection, New York, New York, acquired from above, by 2000
- Michael Altman Fine Art & Advisory Services, New York, New York
- [With] Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New York, 2021
- Collection of J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox, acquired from above
Exhibited
The Painter and the New World, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Quebec, Canada, June 9–July 30, 1967
The Romantic Vision in America, Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, October 9–November 28, 1971
Circles of Influence: Thomas Cole and the American Landscape Movement, Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Catskill, New York, June 2026-December 13, 2026
Note
Note I: Ellwood C. Parry III writes that Distant View of Boston “is a charming example of Thomas Cole’s remarkable ability, as the leading Romantic landscape painter in the U. S. at that time, to invest even a topographical view with both observational accuracy and incredible visual drama.… The complex mountainous cloudscape he invented is already there to dramatize the low coastal scenery and provide the appropriate darker backdrop for the gleaming dome of Bulfinch’s Capital Building atop Beacon Hill.”[1]
Note II: John Wilmerding writes “Cole modifies his realistic subject, with its focus on the Gleaming dome of Charles Bullfinch’s Boston State House in the distance, by raising it above the city in a near mountainous terrain. The figures in the foreground could almost be pilgrims surveying the holy city of Jerusalem. By such exaggerations Cole blends the real with the ideal” [2]
[1] Ellwood C. Parry III, letter to the new owner, dated June 1, 2000.
[2] John Wilmerding, A Collector’s Journey, 2023, 5.
Related Work
- View of Boston, pen, ink, and pencil on paper, 8 5/8 x 11 1/2 inches; Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan
- View of Boston, oil on canvas, 34 x 47 1/8 inches; Private collection
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