The village of Catskill is a showpiece with many beautiful 1800's homes.
It's funny then, that on my OneWheel ride, I'd take particular notice of a simple shed. It was mostly obscured by trees but, what was visible had an asthetic that grabbed my attention.
And, so began my introduction to Thomas Cole (1801-1848). The shed, which he designed and built in the 1840's, was his studio. He designed some bigger things too, like Ohio's Statehouse. Most mere mortals would be satisfied with that and call it a day. Not Thomas, for his real passion was landscape painting. In fact, he's the progenitor of the Hudson River School--an art movement in which landscape paintings are infused with romanticism.
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| Thomas Cole, The Ox Bow, c. 1836. |
Cole's Ox Bow makes a clear distinction between what nature is (seen on the left) and what man is making it (seen on the right). Personally, I prefer the latter. However, Cole's larger point is that which initially seems good can turn out very poorly.
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| Thomas Cole, The Consummation of Empire, c. 1835 - 1836. |
He dramatically expresses his fears in a series of five, allegorical paintings called, The Course of Empire. In
The Consummation of Empire, Cole shows man triumphant while nature has been relegated to a single flower pot.
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| Thomas Cole, Desolation, c. 1836. |
The final piece in the series,
Desolation, might also be called, "Don't mess with Mother Nature."
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| Thomas Cole, Settler's Home in the Catskills, c. 1842. |
Not all of Cole's paintings are so serious. In
Settler's Home in the Catskills, he depicts, albeit idealistically, Catskill Creek where Nellie will moor in 176 years. How did he know ;-)
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| Thomas Cole, Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, Maria Bartow, c. 1836–48. |
While Cole isn't known as a portraitist, this pencil drawing of his wife is wonderful. I almost expect her to look up and smile.
To provide a sense of scale it's not uncommon for landscape artists to include people in their scenes. Cole included rowers in his Catskill Creek paintings. I can't imagine what's going through the mind of the rower in
The Trying Hour.
Cus D'Amato's boxing gym, just off Catskill's Main Street, trained the likes of heavyweight champions Mike Tyson and Floyd Patterson.
Lest anyone think we're getting uppity in this cultural visit to Catskill, I need to report that we spent an enjoyable 45 minutes touring Beer World. Bicki brought our cart along on the "outside chance" we'd find something of interest. I'm happy to report that transporting two cases of Yuengling Black & Tan, two rough-road miles back to Nellie, was no problem.
0 Miles today, 719 miles in 2019 and 8955 from Naples. DBH
Cus D'Amato's boxing gym, just off Catskill's Main Street, trained the likes of heavyweight champions Mike Tyson and Floyd Patterson.
Lest anyone think we're getting uppity in this cultural visit to Catskill, I need to report that we spent an enjoyable 45 minutes touring Beer World. Bicki brought our cart along on the "outside chance" we'd find something of interest. I'm happy to report that transporting two cases of Yuengling Black & Tan, two rough-road miles back to Nellie, was no problem.
