British, 19th century, male.
Born 1 February 1801, in Bolton-le-Moors (Lancashire), England; died 11 February 1848, near Catskill (New York).
Painter, draughtsman. Landscapes with figures.
Symbolism.
Hudson River School (related to).
Thomas Cole's parents left England when he was 18 and settled in Ohio, where his father became an upholsterer. It is said that he persuaded his father, who had just been bankrupted, to flee from English industrial civilisation to the natural wildness of America. Thomas taught himself to draw, and then left home to seek his fortune in Philadelphia. He initially tried to earn his living as an itinerant portrait painter, a common activity in the early years of American art....
