Research Catalog

Title

Thomas Cole's refrain : the paintings of Catskill Creek / H. Daniel Peck.

Author

Peck, H. Daniel,

Publication

Ithaca : Three Hills, an imprint of Cornell University Press, 2019.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 186 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits; 26 cm

Summary

• "Shows how Thomas Cole's neglected Catskill Creek paintings cohere as a series and express the artist's deep attachment to place and region"--
• "Thomas Cole, an internationally renowned artist, centered his art and life in Catskill, New York. From his vantage point near the village, he cast his eyes on the wonders of the Catskill Mountains and the swiftly flowing Catskill Creek. These landscapes were sources of enduring inspiration for him. Over twenty years, Cole painted one view of the Catskill Mountains at least ten times. Each work represents the mountains from the perspective of a wide river bend near Catskill, New York. No other scene commanded this much of the artist's attention. Cole's Catskill Creek paintings, which include works central to American nineteenth-century landscape art, are an integral series. In Thomas Cole's Refrain, H. Daniel Peck explores the patterns of change and permanence in the artist's depiction of a scene he knew first-hand. Peck shows how the paintings express the artist's deep attachment to place and region while illuminating his expansive imagination. Thomas Cole's Refrain shows how Cole's Catskill Creek paintings, while reflecting concepts such as the stages of life, opened a more capacious vision of experience than his narrative-driven series, such as The Voyage of Life. Relying on rich visual evidence provided by paintings, topographic maps, and contemporary photographs, Peck argues that human experience is conveyed through Cole's embedding into a stable, recurring landscape key motifs that tell stories of their own. The motifs include enigmatic human figures, mysterious architectural forms, and particular trees and plants. Peck finds significant continuities--personal and conceptual--running throughout the Catskill Creek paintings, continuities that cast new light on familiar works and bring significance to ones never before seen by many viewers." -- Publisher's description

Subjects

• Cole, Thomas, 1801-1848
• New York (State) > Catskill Mountains Region
• Cole, Thomas, 1801-1848 > Homes and haunts > New York (State) > Catskill Mountains Region
• Cole, Thomas, 1801-1848 > Criticism and interpretation
• Homes
• Catskill Mountains Region (N.Y.) > In art
• Hudson River school of landscape painting
• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Art

Genre/Form

• Art.
• Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 157-179) and index.

Contents

Foreword / by Elizabeth B. Jacks -- Foreword / by Marsha Turchinsky -- Prologue : Catskill Creek and a sense of place -- The discovery of Thomas Cole -- A different kind of series -- Discovering Catskill Creek -- Taking a different view -- Living through trying times -- Epilogue : the refrain of Catskill Creek.

ISBN

• 9781501733079
• 1501733079

LCCN

2018033688

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries