Item #4384 [A letter to a patron regarding one of Cole’s finest paintings]. Thomas Cole.

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[A letter to a patron regarding one of Cole’s finest paintings].

Catskill, New York, 9 November 1848. Autograph letter, signed “Thomas Cole,” 258 x 220 mm, 1 p.

A brief letter from Thomas Cole to his New York City patron Charles M. Leupp concerning the completion and framing of his painting The Mountain Ford.

Regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, Thomas Cole (1801–1848) was an English-born American artist known for his Romantic and allegorical paintings of the American wilderness. The work referenced in this letter can be reliably identified as The Mountain Ford (1846), which was painted for Charles M. Leupp less than two years prior to Cole’s early death. The painting was composed at Cole’s second studio (known as the “New Studio”)—some distance from his main house in Catskill—which was built during this period and was used until his death. The Mountain Ford belongs to The Metropolitan Museum of Art and can be viewed here. In a journal entry for New Year’s Day, 1846—a few months before he began working on this painting—Cole described himself as “one who, traveling through a desert, comes to a deep stream beyond which he sees green fields & fruits & flowers fears to venture in the rushing waters. But I am about to venture & I have determined to commence in a short time (indeed I have already commenced drawing on the canvasses) a series of five pictures. The subject is the Cross and the World.” This series would remain unfinished at the time of his death; judging by the theme Cole announces here, this late painting was part of the series.

Cole writes to Leupp to inform him he has “nearly completed a picture which I intend for you & as I have worked upon it ‘con amor’ I trust it will be one of my finest.” The bulk of this brief missive concerns the dimensions of the painting: “I now write to inform of the dimensions of the picture so that you may have a Frame made for it; for you know that artists are always unwilling to show their pictures unframed.” Cole proceeds to give Leupp the precise dimensions of the painting, which match those of The Mountain Ford, and closes the letter with the urging: “I should like the frame done as soon as possible as I expect to be in N York in 10 days or a fortnight. I remain yours very truly.”

Charles M. Leupp (1807–1859) was a New York City leather merchant, financier, and art collector, who served as a Trustee of the New York Society Library 1846–1855 and patron of the National Academy of Design (est. 1825). Leupp and Bryant worked together for 20 years to establish and manage the short-lived American Art-Union (1839–1851), which—in the ‘40s—issued an engraving after Cole's painting Youth, from his series of four paintings known as The Voyage of Life. Leupp committed suicide a little over a decade after Cole’s untimely death; both deaths greatly affected Bryant, who would write Leupp’s obituary in the Evening Post.

An appealing Cole letter relating to one of his finest works and affording a glimpse of his relationship with an important patron.

REFERENCES. Bryant, William Cullen. The Letters of William Cullen Bryant: 1858–1864. (New York, 1984), pp. 80, 122; Cole, Thomas. “Thoughts and Occurences,” January 1, 1846, quoted in American Art to 1900: A Documentary History (Berkeley, 2009), p. 242; Gotwals, Jenny. Guide to the American Art-Union Print Collection 1840-1851, New-York Historical Society at dlib.nyu.edu; The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Mountain Ford at metmuseum.org

CONDITION: Very good, old folds, and a tiny puncture in upper left portion.

Item #4384

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