Description

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
New York, NY
Thomas Cole’s Journey: Atlantic Crossings
$200,000
 
This exhibition of 77 works takes as its starting point the Metropolitan’s own Thomas Cole masterpiece The Oxbow , positing that the canvas was an outcome of the American artist’s transatlantic career and deep engagement with European art.  Bringing major paintings by Cole into conversation with landscapes by J.M.W. Turner, John Constable, and Claude Lorrain, the exhibition will explore them in the context of Cole’s humble British origins and avid travels, the British Empire and the rise of its former American colonies, the industrial revolution, and Romantic theories of history and civilization.  It will consider, as well, Cole’s legacy in launching a national school of landscape art.  The exhibition will travel to the National Gallery, London.
Approved by the Board:  November 2, 2017​