One the teacher, the other the student, one modest and reserved, the other flamboyant, one dies young, the other mourns the loss of his friend and mentor, but visiting their respective homes brings to focus their artistic brilliance. Thomas Cole and Fredric Church’s friendship lasted for about four years due to Cole’s premature death in 1848.
The Hudson River Valley school of landscape painting produced iconic paintings, some of mammoth proportions, of the natural beauty of our world. Distressed by the “the Cost of the empire” manifested in smoggy urban living of the American industrial revolution and “the ravages of the ax” (chainsaws would have really irked him!), they ironically resulted in the panoramic views of the Catskills where he created his often moody masterpieces. It was here at Cedar Grove (where he lived with his wife Maria) that “nature spreads a rich and delightful banquet” where he “mingled her soul with his soul” and Maria and Thomas found “happiness in such a small little spot”.
