Rattlesnake Gal
Senior Member
Registered: November 2003
Location: Central NH
Posts: 5,252
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Lake Winnipesaukee by Thomas Cole.
Lake Winnepesaukee
Oil on canvas, 1827 or 1828
Lake Winnepesaukee was painted just two to three years after Thomas Cole established himself as a leading American landscape artist. The painting illustrates Cole’s early desire to depict nature as wild and sublime.
Cole composed this painting from a sketch he made on a trip through the White Mountains of New Hampshire in 1827. First exhibited at the American Academy of Fine Arts in 1828, it was purchased by Stephen Van Rensselaer III (1764-1839), the aristocratic landowner who was one of Albany’s most famous citizens. In July 1828, Van Rensselaer asked Cole to provide the companion picture, View near Catskill (Private Collection) which was exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1829. Cole’s protégé, Asher B. Durand, engraved an image after the painting in 1830 and the print entitled Winnipiseogee Lake was published in The American Landscape that same year.
Cole wrote of Lake Winnepesaukee:
Its mountains do not stoop to the water’s edge, but through varied screens of forest may be seen ascending the sky softened by the blue haze of distance . . .
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Winnipesaukee Forum
