Thomas Cole
The Cross in the Wilderness
Paris, musée du Louvre © 2008 RMN / Jean-Gilles Berizzi
New Frontier: American Art Enters the Louvre The musée du Louvre, the High Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and the Terra Foundation for American Art have announced the launch of a four-year collaboration devoted to American art. The first installation willexplore the rise of American landscape painting through theworks of Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand.
January 14 – April 16, 2012
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Source: / The musée du Louvre
The first presentation of the “New Frontier” partnership is centeredon Thomas Cole (1801 -1848) and the rise of American landscapepainting. The Louvre acquired in 1975 The Cross in the Wilderness,which represents the culmination of the artist’s reflection, initiated in1825, on the representation of a certain type of American landscape,both untouched and grandiose.
Inspired by the sentiments expressed in contemporary Americanliterature, by writers such as James Fenimore Cooper and WilliamCullen Bryant, the works of Cole and those of his compatriot AsherB. Durand, initiated a particularly new and fertile genre in the youngschool of American painting.
Five works drawn from the collections of the partner institutionshave been selected for the inaugural presentation. In addition to thepainting from the Louvre, these include The Tempest (High Museumof Art), one of the first landscapes by the artist; Landscape withFigures: A Scene from “The Last of the Mohicans”, painted by Colein 1826 and considered one of the artist’s first masterpieces (TerraFoundation for American Art); and Cole’s last painting, The GoodShepherd, 1848 (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art). Apainting by Asher B. Durand (High Museum of Art) rounds out thepresentation and demonstrates the profound influence of Cole on hiscontemporaries.
Following its premiere at the Louvre, the exhibition will travel toCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AR (May12 – August 13, 2012) and to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA(September 22, 2012 – January 6, 2013).
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