Cross at Sunset

Cross at Sunset is an oil on canvas painting by Thomas Cole. Believed to have been created around 1848, it was left unfinished due to his premature death that year.

Cross at Sunset
Cross at Sunset c. 1848
ArtistThomas Cole
Year1848
MediumOil on Canvas
Dimensions91.1 cm × 121.9 cm (35.8 in × 47.9 in)
LocationThyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain

Artist's background
Main article: Thomas Cole

Tom Christopher wrote that “[Thomas] Cole’s greatest artistic asset proved to be his untutored eye.”[1] Cole emigrated to America with his family in the spring of 1819 at the age of eighteen.[2] As a child, his surroundings were of Lancashire, England, an area known to be an epicenter of Britain’s primarily industrial region. Because of this, Cole was granted an additional clarity of and sensitivity to the vibrancy of American landscapes awash with color, a stark contrast to the bleak and subdued landscapes of the country he left behind.[3] As he aged and recognized his own mortality, Cole transitioned away from natural landscape paintings to focus on works conveying religious and spiritual themes.[4]

Composition

Due to it being unfinished, it is possible to see the underdrawing and the undertone applied in the foreground.[5]

References
  1. Christopher, “Living Off the Landscape,” 1.
  2. Noble, The Life and Works of Thomas Cole, 6.
  3. Great Northern Catskills of Greene County. “Hudson River School of Art,” 1.
  4. Genocchio, Benjamin (June 18, 2006). "In an Untamed Wilderness, Finding the Serene". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 15, 2018. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
  5. "Cross at Sunet". Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. Retrieved September 6, 2020.

Works cited
  • Christopher, Tom. "Living Off the Landscape: How Thomas Cole and Frederick Church made Themselves at Home in the Hudson River Valley." Humanities 30, no. 4 (2009):6-11.
  • Noble, Luis Legrand. The Life and Works of Thomas Cole. Edited by Elliot S. Vesell Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1964.
  • Great Northern Catskills of Greene County. “Hudson River School of Art”. http://www.greatnortherncatskills.com/arts-culture/hudson-river-school-art.
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