Explore Thomas Cole

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  • Falls of the Kaaterskill
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  • The Clove, Catskills
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  • The Course of Empire: The Savage State
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  • The Course of Empire: The Arcadian or Pastoral State
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  • The Course of Empire: The Consummation of Empire
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  • The Course of Empire: Destruction
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  • The Course of Empire: Desolation
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  • View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, After A Thunderstorm (The Oxbow)
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  • View on the Catskill, Early Autumn
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  • The Voyage of Life: Childhood (First Set)
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  • The Voyage of Life: Youth (First Set)
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  • The Voyage of Life: Manhood (First Set)
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  • The Voyage of Life: Old Age (First Set)
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  • The Architect's Dream
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  • Mount Etna From Taormina, Sicily
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  • A View of the Two Lakes and Mountain House, Catskill Mountains, Morning
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  • Kindred Spirits

The Architect's Dream

Thomas Cole. Oil on canvas, 1840, 53 x 84 1/16 in. Toledo Museum of Art. Purchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A Scott, 1949.162.

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  • 1.Elevation of State House, Columbus, Ohio
  • 2.Front Elevation Drawing for St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Catskill, New York
  • 3.Two Front Elevations

Thomas Cole, Elevation of State House, Columbus, Ohio, graphite pencil on beige wove paper, 1838, 10 ¾ x 14 ¾ in. Detroit Institute of Arts; Founders Society Purchase, William H. Murphy Fund, 39.505. View in Virtual Gallery

One of Cole's first forays into architecture was to design the new State House in Columbus, Ohio, with his nephew, architect William Henry Bayless. Conceived by Cole and drawn by Bayless, the design was submitted to a competition and—after complicated deliberations—was ultimately adopted with modifications for the building, beating out the firm of Cole's patron, Ithiel Town. In the elevation drawing, Cole again drew from classical sources, using a Greek Doric colonnade in the front, topped by a pediment and a Roman dome. Cole's biographer Louis Legrand Noble—in his typically reverential manner—called the building "one of the most perfect edifices for just proportion and harmony of parts, on the continent." 1  The finished design was significantly altered: a low conical roof replaced the dome, while less expensive recessed entrances were built instead of the porticoes. The building still stands today. 2 

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