View of Mt. Etna (Primary Title)
View of Mount Etna (Alternate Title)
Thomas Cole, American, born England, 1801 - 1848 (Artist)
Thomas Cole, considered the founder of the Hudson River school, is most celebrated for his naturalistic landscapes of New York’s Catskills regions. Yet he also had a deep reverence for Italian painting and Old World scenery, as this work suggests. A southern view of the iconic volcano looming over a fertile Sicilian valley, the oil is one of approximately six versions of Cole’s favorite Italian subject; he called Mount Etna “one of the grandest scenes in the world.” In such imagery the artist celebrated Italy’s many natural and historic wonders, rendering them with an aesthetic grandeur and rich symbolism in his pursuit of a more elevated form of landscape painting.
Signed on rock lower center: "T. Cole"
Verso of frame: upper left: VMFA tag and frame sticker; upper center: sticker: "William S. Conley / Carver and Gilder / Plain + Ornamental / Framer / 9 Essex St. New"; upper right: "90-100 #837"; right: "90-100"; left center: Eli Wilner sticker; # 837; left center: "#837 / #837";
Verso of painting: upper left: VMFA tag; upper center: Vose? sticker "71 Newbury St. BOSTON"; upper right: "Nassau County Museum of Fine Art / Thomas Cole / View of Mount Etna / Gallery 1"
Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund
American Artists Abroad: The European Experience in the 19th Century, Nassau County Museum of Fine Art, Roslyn, NY, June 2 – September 2, 1985
Doll & Richards Gallery, Boston;
Miss Cora Crowninshield or Mr. G.C. Crowninshield, Boston, c. 1840s;
Mrs. Charles Boyden;
Mrs. Boyden's daughter;
James H. Stevenson, III [1936-2006], Philadelphia;
[1] Order of transfer is unconfirmed. This order follows the VMFA object card; however, Doll & Richards Gallery was not established in Boston until 1866, precluding the Crowninshields from acquiring it through that dealer in the 1840s. Doll & Richards Gallery was active until 1973. See their records at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, and the VMFA Registration files.
[2] Daughter of the Crowninshields.
[3] Accessioned December 13, 1976. See VMFA Curatorial file.
Miss Cora Crowninshield or Mr. G.C. Crowninshield, Boston, c. 1840s;
Mrs. Charles Boyden;
Mrs. Boyden's daughter;
James H. Stevenson, III [1936-2006], Philadelphia;
[1] Order of transfer is unconfirmed. This order follows the VMFA object card; however, Doll & Richards Gallery was not established in Boston until 1866, precluding the Crowninshields from acquiring it through that dealer in the 1840s. Doll & Richards Gallery was active until 1973. See their records at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, and the VMFA Registration files.
[2] Daughter of the Crowninshields.
[3] Accessioned December 13, 1976. See VMFA Curatorial file.
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC
Some object records are not complete and do not reflect VMFA's full and current knowledge. VMFA makes routine updates as records are reviewed and enhanced.
