Our Artist Vacation - Day 2

In order to see everything we wanted to on Day 2 we were on the road by 7:00 a.m.  We drove back into New Hope, PA and crossed the river to Lambertville, NJ.  This saved us from having to pay a bridge toll if we'd crossed at the closer Rt. 202 bridge.  We wanted a quick breakfast so we stopped at this Coffee Bar....

♫Are You Sleeping Maggie♫*

As we headed back north, the sky had clouded up considerably.   By the time we reached Catskill, NY it was raining and quite chilly.  We had hoped to tour the grounds of the Thomas Cole house, but had to settle for just the house tour.  *Thomas Cole mentions this song in an 1843 letter to C.L. Ver Bryck

Thomas Cole, painter/poet/essayist, was considered the father of the Hudson River School style of painting.  You can read more about it here and watch the film on the website about his life and work.  I have long admired the Hudson River School style of painting and wanted to see Cole's home, Cedar Grove.  In 1834 he rented a cottage on the property from the owner and moved into Cedar Grove when he married one his landlord's nieces, Maria, in 1836.  Her uncle and her three sisters continued to live there along with the children Maria would eventually bear.  

Because of the rain I was unable to take a photo of the house, but I found this on the web....

We came up the side steps and walked to the far end of the porch to this view....

This postcard shows the names of the peaks that Thomas Cole could see from his porch....

Back in his day the Catskill Mountain House could be seen from Cole's porch.  It operated until 1941, but unfortunately was eventually razed in 1963.  We visited the site in 1999 on one of our vacations in the Catskill Mountains.  It had been perched practically on the edge of the mountain overlooking the Hudson River--breathtaking!  

Shall we go in....

Cole would hang his coat and hat in the entry hall upon his return from walking the surrounding landscape where he would make sketches for his paintings....

This was before tubes of paint.  Artists could mix small amounts and put them in bladders, plus it was a cumbersome task to carry about all the equipment necessary to paint plein air.  Instead Cole would sketch the scene and make notes about the colors.  He felt that if he spent 20 minutes looking intently on an object he could paint it with more truth than if he'd painted it on the spot.  Cole believed the artist should be true to nature, but also be allowed poetic license.  He wrote....

If the imagination is shackled, and nothing is described but what we see, seldom will anything truly great be produced either in Painting or Poetry.

Cole would erase any sign of industry or tourism from his finished scene.  He painted the scene as he wished it to be, just as I did in taking the photograph of the mountains above.  In reality there are house rooftops just below the area I framed in my viewfinder.  Cole was already disturbed by the encroaching civilization.  He would have been pleased to know that in 1885 the Catskill Forest Preserve was established and contained a "forever wild" clause.  Today you can follow the trails to each of the sites depicted in the paintings by the River Hudson School artists.

♫Circle of Life♫

The first floor of the house were the "public" formal rooms.  This window looks out at the Catskill Mountains....

The family would receive their guests here....

"Prometheus Bound"

The second floor contained the family's private living area.  This window overlooks the front lawn....

I can imagine Cole sitting at this desk looking out at the Catskill Mountains (hopefully sans rooftops)....

He played several musical instruments.  His flute and oboe are in the glass case.  The tall instrument standing on the floor is an aeolian harp....

He also played the guitar and on one of his trips to the British Isles brought home a new song to play for Maria....

"Mount Chocorua, New Hampshire"

The Catskill Mountain House....

One of the few plein air paintings he was said to have done....

"Mountain Sunrise"

The bedrooms were on the second floor as well.  Cole's trunk at the foot of the bed has his signature on the lid.  He no doubt used this on his travels....

The sketch on the dressing table is of their son, Theodore....

Their daughter, Emily, painted the sunflower that stands on their nightstand....

Cole made this graphite drawing of Maria....

Thomas Cole had his studio in the nearby storehouse for many years....

On the easel is a reproduction from his series of paintings called Voyage of Life....

The museum is breaking ground this summer on rebuilding the art studio that replaced the one above in 1846.  Cole did not get to use it for very long because he died five days after his 47th birthday in 1848 from a lung infection.  "The Life and Works of Thomas Cole" by Rev. Louis L. Noble was published in 1856 and can be found here and downloaded as an ebook.  If you enter the page number 378 in the search box you will be taken to the last letter he wrote before his death in which he speaks eloquently about the mental and moral habits of the artist.  Throughout the book are letters to Maria while on his travels.  He very much loved and missed her and his children.  When he died she was two months pregnant with their 5th child.  Their 4th had died in infancy the year before.

This is how Cedar Grove looked in 1868 as painted by Charles Herbert Moore....

O Cedar Grove! Whene’er I think to part

From thine all peaceful shades my aching heart

Is like to his who leaves some blessed shore

A weeping exile ne’er to see it more--

--Thomas Cole

After a thorough browsing of the gift shop we headed back to the car in the rain with my two book purchases-- "Thomas Cole's Creative Process" and "The Hudson River School Art Trail Guide."  We found a diner along the main street for a quick bite before heading to Vermont....

Whenever I see fried flounder on the menu I never have to dither over what to have....

Remember the cats on and under our car?  Well, they've seemed to have followed us.  There were CATS all over CATSKILL....

This one was prepared for the weather!

I was starting to draw smiles from passersby as the rain poured in my opened car window as I took photos of all the cats, so we headed north to Albany then took a right turn and drove through the Green Mountains on our way to Rockingham, VT to the Vermont Country Store....

I remarked to Ken, "Wasn't it raining the last time we drove through the Green Mountains in 2006?"  See the rack of clothes on the porch?  I found two dresses and a skirt marked down to $9.77 each!  Maybe that was a Scottish black cat under our car and the prosperity was the savings from not having to pay the bridge toll and the huge savings on the clothing.  We stayed as long as we dared because we needed to get on down the road to our Bed & Breakfast.  I'll save that for Day 3....another ghost story to tell you!