The Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole (1801–1848) began his early exploration of the natural world during his carefree childhood in Lancashire, England. The great painter’s love and observation of nature began in a small town known as Chorely, where the Cole family made their home. However, according to biographer Louis Legrand Noble, Cole was not alone.
Painting a New World
Sarah and Thomas’s father, James Cole, manufactured textiles and wallpaper. Unfortunately, he struggled financially and moved his wife and four of their eight children to the Unites States in 1818. Sarah no doubt felt strong ties to her childhood home. In paintings like “Landscape With Church” (1846), we see the church in Durfield in the center of her landscape’s waning light.
Her parents settled in New York City, but her brother made his way to the Catskills. Sarah cherished the times when she would visit Thomas, which she did often. Together they hiked to Kaaterskill Cove and explore the wooded hills around the valley. They were close friends and shared a love of art.
Sarah was often a great encouragement to her famous brother in his moments of artistic doubt. “In a little while you will find that the art will return to you, and you will return to the art with renewed pleasure. The lights and shadows of this life are like the lights and shadows in your own pictures. The one makes the other more beautiful,” she wrote to Thomas.
She took up painting seriously in 1837 and wrote Thomas, “I have again been painting on my own and find it rather a difficult piece of business and I very often stand in need of a word from you.” From the exchange of letters, we learn that the two siblings enjoyed a relationship where each was the other’s primary encourager.
There are but 30 works that can be attributed to Sarah. She did not exhibit her work publicly until after Thomas’s death, presumably because she did not want to compete with him. Thanks to the Thomas Cole National Historic Site’s dedication to clarifying her contributions to Luminism, she properly stands alongside her brother.
