Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00000238View of Schroon Mountain, Essex County, New York, After a Storm
by Thomas Cole
Also known as: Schroon Mountain, The Adirondacks
About the Artwork
Championing the American wilderness, Cole declared, "We are still in Eden," in his Essay on American Scenery, published two years before he painted this view of the Adirondacks. The artist sketched the scene in early summer, but when he created the painting in his studio, he rendered it in a dramatic blaze of fall colors. Such a choice likely had nationalistic overtones; he once proclaimed that autumn was "one season where the American forest surpasses all the world in gorgeousness." Cole included two Indigenous men in the painting’s right foreground foliage. At this time, the Adirondacks remained home to many Native Americans long after most had been forcibly removed from land east of the Mississippi River. While continuing to live, hunt, and fish in the area, these Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples were compelled to significantly adapt their existence amid increasing White settlement and its attendant lumber, mining, and tourist industries.
Inscriptions
signed lower left: T. Cole / Catskill 1838.
Provenance
1838: Dr. George Ackerly [d. 1842], New York, NY, to his daughter, Emma Ackerly1 By `839 - `847: Emma Ackerly 1847-: Jonathan G. and Emma Ackerly Chapman, sold to Nicholas Matthews1 Until 1914: Nicholas M. Matthews [1858-1930], Baltimore, MD 1914: (American Art Association, Matthews collection sale, Feb. 17, 1914, no. 61, possibly sold to T. Austin) 1914-1916: Possibly T. Austin 1916: (Anderson Galleries, New York, NY, Matthews collection sale, Jan. 17, 1916, no. 55, sold to Holland Galleries) 1916-1917: (Holland Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1917-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Exhibition history
A Century of American Landscape Painting 1800-1900. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (organizer) (co-organizer) (January 19-February 25, 1938). A Souvenir of Romanticism in America; or An Elegant Exposition of Taste and Fashion from 1812-to 1865. The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD (organizer) (co-organizer) (May 10-June 10, 1940). Survey of American Painting. Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA (co-organizer) (October 24-December 15, 1940). The Works of Thomas Cole, 1801-1848. Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY (organizer) (co-organizer) (November 1-December 15, 1941). The Hudson River School and the Early American Landscape Tradition. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (co-organizer) (February 15-March 25, 1945); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (April 17-May 18, 1945). Thomas Cole 1801-1848 One Hundred Years Later: A Loan Exhibition. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT (organizer) (co-organizer) (November 12, 1948-January 2, 1949); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (January 8-30, 1949). Exhibition of the Month: The Romantic Spirit. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 29-May 5, 1952). Arts of the Young Republic: The Age of William Dunlap. Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, Chapel Hill, NC (organizer) (co-organizer) (November 2-December 1, 1968). Thomas Cole. Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, NY (organizer) (co-organizer) (February 14-March 23, 1969); Munson Museum of Art, Utica, NY (April 5-May 4, 1969); Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY (May 9-June 20, 1969); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (June 30-September 1, 1969). Heritage and Horizon: American Painting 1776 - 1976. Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY (organizer) (March 7-April 11, 1976); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (May 2-June 13, 1976); The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH (July 4-August 15, 1976); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 8-October 10, 1976). Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982). A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting, 1760 - 1910. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA (organizer) (co-organizer) (September 7-November 13, 1983); Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (December 7, 1983-February 12, 1984). American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (co-organizer) (October 4, 1987-January 3, 1988). A Nation's Legacy: 150 Years of American Art from Ohio Collections. Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (January 19-March 15, 1992). Landscape Into History. National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC (organizer) (co-organizer) (March 18-August 7, 1994); Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT (September 11-December 4, 1994); The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY (January 8-March 25, 1995).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 7, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Thomas Cole (American, born England,1801–1848)
- Date
- 1838
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 132.5 x 193.5 x 13 cm (52 3/16 x 76 3/16 x 5 1/8 in.); Unframed: 99.8 x 160.6 cm (39 5/16 x 63 1/4 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- American Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection
- Accession no.
- 1917.1335
More by Thomas Cole in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00000238
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