Cole's Circle

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Smillie, James (1807-85)

Engraver of Scottish descent and member of the National Academy of Design. Smillie moved to New York in 1829, not long after Cole first arrived there. Smillie earned distinction for his engravings of famous American landscape paintings, and in the 1850s he created reproductions of Cole's series The Voyage of Life. Smillie turned to the engraving of banknotes in the 1860s.

Sturges, Jonathan (1802-74)

One of Cole's patrons and Luman Reed's business partner. Sturges commissioned View on the Catskill, Early Autumn in 1837 and praised its vision of Catskill before modernization, although he later became a major financial supporter of railroad construction in the 1850s. Sturges also commissioned Asher B. Durand to paint Kindred Spirits following Cole's death in 1848, giving the painting to William Cullen Bryant as thanks for delivering a eulogy for Cole at the National Academy of Design. See Asher B. Durand, Jonathan Sturges.