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It is Cole’s skill as an artist that enables him both to create an image that would both appeal to his patrons in its depiction of abundant resources and express his own concern about the effects of settlement on the land. In Cole’s Home in the Woods, a father returns home to the family cabin in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, bringing with him a fresh catch that will serve as the family’s dinner. The family has cleared the land themselves—the chopped-down trees and sawn logs are prominent in the foreground of the painting. And it is through this detail that Cole reveals his stance on the settlement of unspoiled land in the country’s interior. In his 1836 “Essay on American Scenery,” Cole lamented the “ravages of the axe” that were destroying the wilderness as early as the 1830s.
In Home in the Woods, the ravages of the axe are prominently represented in the foreground. The artist clearly contrasts the area around the cabin, shorn of trees and littered with the family’s belongings, with the pristine mountains in the background. He seems to warn the viewer that, as more and more people arrive, these unspoiled places will disappear.
Home in the Woods was commissioned by the American Art-Union, a subscription society founded by a group of New York businessmen in 1840. The goal of this organization was to educate and enlighten American citizens by exposing them to fine art. Members of the union joined by paying five dollars per year, for which they received minutes of annual meetings, a print based on a work of fine art, and a lottery ticket which put them in the running to win a work of original art. In 1847, the American Art-Union commissioned Thomas Cole to produce a work for addition to their catalogue. At the annual meeting that year, George Dwight of Springfield, Massachusetts, won Home in the Woods by lottery.
Provenance1847
American Art-Union, New York NY, commissioned from artist. [1]
From 1847
George Dwight (1812-c.1870s), Springfield MA, given by American Art-Union at Annual Meeting in 1847. [2]
By 1942
Harvey F. Additon (born c.1871), Boston MA. [3]
From 1942 to 1968
Henry Farmer, New York, purchased from Harvey F. Additon through Robert B. Campbell, Boston MA; his family, by inheritance. [4]
From 1969 to 1981
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York, purchased from Kennedy Galleries, New York on August 22, 1969. [5]
From 1978
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC, partial and promised gift of Barbara B. Millhouse, full ownership transferred in 1981. [6]
Notes:
[1] See summary sheets, Object file.
[2] See note 1. The American Art-Union gave out original artwork and had an annual lottery system for its members.
[3] See note 1.
[4] See note 1. Stayed with Farmer descendants until 1968.
[5] See note 1.
[6] See Deeds of Gift (4), Object file.
Exhibition History1847
Annual Exhibition
American Art-Union, New York NY (1847)
Cat. No. 7
1948-1949
Thomas Cole 1801-1848, One Hundred Years Later
Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford CT (1948-1949)
as "View of Near Conway, New Hampshire, c. 1828"
1969
Thomas Cole
Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Rochester NY
Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica NY
Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany NY
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY
Cat. No. 55
1971
Reynolda House American Paintings
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York NY (1/13/1971-1/31/1971)
Cat. No. 23
For the benefit of the Smith College Scholarship Fund
1973
The American Frontier, Images and Myth
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY (6/26/1973-9/16/1973)
Cat. No. 17
1973
The Hudson River School: American Landscape Painting from 1821-1907
R.W. Norton Art Gallery, Shreveport LA (10/14/1973-11/25/1973)
Cat. No. 1
1977
Themes in American Painting
Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids MI (10/1/1977-11/30/1977)
Cat. No. 32
1988-1989
Pictures from the New World: American Painting of the 18th and 19th Century.
(Bilder aus der Neuen Welt: Amerikanische Malerei des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts)
Orangerie des Schloß Charlottenburg (Charlottenburger Castle), West Berlin, Germany (11/17/1988-2/12/1989)
Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland (3/3/1989-5/15/1989).
Cat. No. 11
Was extended a week in Berlin, so Zurich was pushed back a week.
1990-1992
American Originals, Selections from Reynolda House Museum of American Art
The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago IL (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
Cat. No. 10
1994-1995
Thomas Cole: Landscape into History
National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC (3/18/1994-8/7/1994)
Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford CT (9/11/1994-12/4/1994)
The Brooklyn Museum, New York NY (1/13/1995-4/2/1995)
2005
Vanguard Collecting: American Art at Reynolda House
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (4/2005-8/2005)
2010
Virtue, Vice, Wisdom, & Folly: The Moralizing Tradition in American Art
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (9/18/2010-12/31/2010)
2018-2019
Nature's Nation: American Art and Environment
Princeton (Oct. 13, 2018-Jan. 6, 2019)
Peabody Essex Museum (Feb. 2-May 5, 2019)
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (May 25-Sept. 9, 2019)
2021
The Voyage of Life: Art, Allegory, and Community Response
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (7/16/2021 - 12/12/2021)
Published ReferencesCatalogue, American Art Union (November 1847): no. 7.
The Literary World II (January 1, 1848): 539.
West Virginia (WV History Film Project Inc. and WNPB-TV, 1995): tape 1 of 3.
Gallagher and Sears. Karl Bodmer's Eastern Views Omaha, NE: Joslyn Art Museum, 1996.
Reid, Dennis. Krieghoff: Images Of Canada. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1999: 87.
Albers, Jan. Hands On The Land: A History Of The Vermont Landscape. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2000: 87.
Wilson, Richard Guy."Going with the Grain: The American Tradition of Building with Wood," Blueprints. 18, no. 3 (summer 2000): 3.
"Criticism of Pictures Exhibited at the Art Union" The Literary World II (October 23, 1847): 227.
Noble, L.L. Life And Works Of Thomas Cole. 1853, ed. E.S. Vessel, Cambridge, Mass: 1964 ed.: 271-186.
Tuckerman, Henry T. Book of the Artists. American Artist Life, Comprising Biographical and Critical Sketches of American Artists: Preceded by an Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of Art in America. New York: G. P. Putnam & Sons, 1867:226-7.
Clement, Clara Erskine & Laurence Hutton.Artists Of The Nineteenth Century And Their Works. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1879: 144.
McBride, H. "Early Americana" The New York Sun (January 14, 1949): illus.
Kennedy Quarterly. VIII (January 1969): color illus. 233.
Flexner, J.T. Nineteenth Century American Painting. (1970): illus, 53.
Ligature and Glenco.American Odyssey. New York: McGraw-Hill: 65.
Lassiter, Barbara B. Reynolda House American Paintings. Winston-Salem, NC: Reynolda House, Inc., 1971.
Millhouse, Barbara B. and Robert Workman. American Originals New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990.
Schama, Simon. Landscape and Memory. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1994.
Thomas Cole: Landscape Into History. Washington: National Museum of American Art, 1994.
Quick, Michael. George Inness: a catalogue raisonné. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007.
Georgia O’Keeffe visions of the sublime / edited by Joseph S. Czestochowski. Memphis: Torch Press and International Arts, 2004.
American Wilderness: The Rustic in Arts and Architecture, AFA, AFA in house, 4/2005. ?? not sure
(not found) Nest, Arne. Rowing to Eden – Ah, the Sea! Peter Landg Publishing, 2008.
(not published yet) Leopold, Joest. AmeriIndian Research. Dr. Mario Koch, November 2010.
Smithsonian Studies in American Art. Smithsonian Institution (Winter 1988): 57.
The Harper American Literature. ed. Donald McQuade. New York: Harper & Row, c1987.
Wolterstorff, Robert P, Thomas A. Denenberg, and Jamie Franklin. Grandma Moses. American Modern. New York: Rizzoli International, 2016. Pg. 97.
Wild Spaces, Open Seasons: Hunting and Fishing in American Art. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016. pg. 90.
Kornhauser, Elizabeth Mankin, Tim Barringer, Chris Riopelle, Dorothy Mahon. Thomas Cole's Journey: Atlantic Crossings. New Haven: Yale Univeristy Press for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018. pg. 228.
Kusserow, Karl and Alan Braddock. Nature's Nation: American Art and the Environment. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018. pg. 113.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories, with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 58, 59, 61, 160, 161
Read, Richard and Kenneth Haltman, Nineteenth-Century Landscape Painting in Australia and the United States, Chicago: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2020, pg. 172.
Blaugrund, Anette, Thomas Cole's Studio: Memory and Inspiration, Catskill, New York: Thomas Cole Historic Site, 2022, pg. 33.
Stevens, Scott Manning, Native Prospects: Indigeneity and the Landscape. Catskill, New York: Thomas Cole Historic Site, 2024, pg. 15
DepartmentAmerican Art
Home in the Woods
Artist
Thomas Cole
(1801 - 1848)
Date1847
Mediumoil on canvas
DimensionsFrame: 52 1/2 x 74 1/2 in. (133.4 x 189.2 cm)
Canvas: 44 3/8 x 66 1/8 in. (112.7 x 168 cm)
SignedT Cole
Credit LineGift of Barbara B. Millhouse
CopyrightPublic Domain
Object number1978.2.2
DescriptionThomas Cole is known primarily as the father of the Hudson River School of landscape painting. Cole enjoyed the patronage of several prominent businessmen in New York City, and they would have been particularly interested in his depictions of the seemingly limitless resources of the country’s interior—the profusion of timber and the extensive network of rivers and lakes that would enable them to make their fortunes. They believed that settlement of the land would have nothing but beneficial effects.It is Cole’s skill as an artist that enables him both to create an image that would both appeal to his patrons in its depiction of abundant resources and express his own concern about the effects of settlement on the land. In Cole’s Home in the Woods, a father returns home to the family cabin in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, bringing with him a fresh catch that will serve as the family’s dinner. The family has cleared the land themselves—the chopped-down trees and sawn logs are prominent in the foreground of the painting. And it is through this detail that Cole reveals his stance on the settlement of unspoiled land in the country’s interior. In his 1836 “Essay on American Scenery,” Cole lamented the “ravages of the axe” that were destroying the wilderness as early as the 1830s.
In Home in the Woods, the ravages of the axe are prominently represented in the foreground. The artist clearly contrasts the area around the cabin, shorn of trees and littered with the family’s belongings, with the pristine mountains in the background. He seems to warn the viewer that, as more and more people arrive, these unspoiled places will disappear.
Home in the Woods was commissioned by the American Art-Union, a subscription society founded by a group of New York businessmen in 1840. The goal of this organization was to educate and enlighten American citizens by exposing them to fine art. Members of the union joined by paying five dollars per year, for which they received minutes of annual meetings, a print based on a work of fine art, and a lottery ticket which put them in the running to win a work of original art. In 1847, the American Art-Union commissioned Thomas Cole to produce a work for addition to their catalogue. At the annual meeting that year, George Dwight of Springfield, Massachusetts, won Home in the Woods by lottery.
Provenance1847
American Art-Union, New York NY, commissioned from artist. [1]
From 1847
George Dwight (1812-c.1870s), Springfield MA, given by American Art-Union at Annual Meeting in 1847. [2]
By 1942
Harvey F. Additon (born c.1871), Boston MA. [3]
From 1942 to 1968
Henry Farmer, New York, purchased from Harvey F. Additon through Robert B. Campbell, Boston MA; his family, by inheritance. [4]
From 1969 to 1981
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York, purchased from Kennedy Galleries, New York on August 22, 1969. [5]
From 1978
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC, partial and promised gift of Barbara B. Millhouse, full ownership transferred in 1981. [6]
Notes:
[1] See summary sheets, Object file.
[2] See note 1. The American Art-Union gave out original artwork and had an annual lottery system for its members.
[3] See note 1.
[4] See note 1. Stayed with Farmer descendants until 1968.
[5] See note 1.
[6] See Deeds of Gift (4), Object file.
Exhibition History1847
Annual Exhibition
American Art-Union, New York NY (1847)
Cat. No. 7
1948-1949
Thomas Cole 1801-1848, One Hundred Years Later
Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford CT (1948-1949)
as "View of Near Conway, New Hampshire, c. 1828"
1969
Thomas Cole
Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Rochester NY
Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica NY
Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany NY
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY
Cat. No. 55
1971
Reynolda House American Paintings
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York NY (1/13/1971-1/31/1971)
Cat. No. 23
For the benefit of the Smith College Scholarship Fund
1973
The American Frontier, Images and Myth
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY (6/26/1973-9/16/1973)
Cat. No. 17
1973
The Hudson River School: American Landscape Painting from 1821-1907
R.W. Norton Art Gallery, Shreveport LA (10/14/1973-11/25/1973)
Cat. No. 1
1977
Themes in American Painting
Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids MI (10/1/1977-11/30/1977)
Cat. No. 32
1988-1989
Pictures from the New World: American Painting of the 18th and 19th Century.
(Bilder aus der Neuen Welt: Amerikanische Malerei des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts)
Orangerie des Schloß Charlottenburg (Charlottenburger Castle), West Berlin, Germany (11/17/1988-2/12/1989)
Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland (3/3/1989-5/15/1989).
Cat. No. 11
Was extended a week in Berlin, so Zurich was pushed back a week.
1990-1992
American Originals, Selections from Reynolda House Museum of American Art
The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago IL (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
Cat. No. 10
1994-1995
Thomas Cole: Landscape into History
National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC (3/18/1994-8/7/1994)
Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford CT (9/11/1994-12/4/1994)
The Brooklyn Museum, New York NY (1/13/1995-4/2/1995)
2005
Vanguard Collecting: American Art at Reynolda House
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (4/2005-8/2005)
2010
Virtue, Vice, Wisdom, & Folly: The Moralizing Tradition in American Art
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (9/18/2010-12/31/2010)
2018-2019
Nature's Nation: American Art and Environment
Princeton (Oct. 13, 2018-Jan. 6, 2019)
Peabody Essex Museum (Feb. 2-May 5, 2019)
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (May 25-Sept. 9, 2019)
2021
The Voyage of Life: Art, Allegory, and Community Response
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (7/16/2021 - 12/12/2021)
Published ReferencesCatalogue, American Art Union (November 1847): no. 7.
The Literary World II (January 1, 1848): 539.
West Virginia (WV History Film Project Inc. and WNPB-TV, 1995): tape 1 of 3.
Gallagher and Sears. Karl Bodmer's Eastern Views Omaha, NE: Joslyn Art Museum, 1996.
Reid, Dennis. Krieghoff: Images Of Canada. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1999: 87.
Albers, Jan. Hands On The Land: A History Of The Vermont Landscape. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2000: 87.
Wilson, Richard Guy."Going with the Grain: The American Tradition of Building with Wood," Blueprints. 18, no. 3 (summer 2000): 3.
"Criticism of Pictures Exhibited at the Art Union" The Literary World II (October 23, 1847): 227.
Noble, L.L. Life And Works Of Thomas Cole. 1853, ed. E.S. Vessel, Cambridge, Mass: 1964 ed.: 271-186.
Tuckerman, Henry T. Book of the Artists. American Artist Life, Comprising Biographical and Critical Sketches of American Artists: Preceded by an Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of Art in America. New York: G. P. Putnam & Sons, 1867:226-7.
Clement, Clara Erskine & Laurence Hutton.Artists Of The Nineteenth Century And Their Works. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1879: 144.
McBride, H. "Early Americana" The New York Sun (January 14, 1949): illus.
Kennedy Quarterly. VIII (January 1969): color illus. 233.
Flexner, J.T. Nineteenth Century American Painting. (1970): illus, 53.
Ligature and Glenco.American Odyssey. New York: McGraw-Hill: 65.
Lassiter, Barbara B. Reynolda House American Paintings. Winston-Salem, NC: Reynolda House, Inc., 1971.
Millhouse, Barbara B. and Robert Workman. American Originals New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990.
Schama, Simon. Landscape and Memory. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1994.
Thomas Cole: Landscape Into History. Washington: National Museum of American Art, 1994.
Quick, Michael. George Inness: a catalogue raisonné. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007.
Georgia O’Keeffe visions of the sublime / edited by Joseph S. Czestochowski. Memphis: Torch Press and International Arts, 2004.
American Wilderness: The Rustic in Arts and Architecture, AFA, AFA in house, 4/2005. ?? not sure
(not found) Nest, Arne. Rowing to Eden – Ah, the Sea! Peter Landg Publishing, 2008.
(not published yet) Leopold, Joest. AmeriIndian Research. Dr. Mario Koch, November 2010.
Smithsonian Studies in American Art. Smithsonian Institution (Winter 1988): 57.
The Harper American Literature. ed. Donald McQuade. New York: Harper & Row, c1987.
Wolterstorff, Robert P, Thomas A. Denenberg, and Jamie Franklin. Grandma Moses. American Modern. New York: Rizzoli International, 2016. Pg. 97.
Wild Spaces, Open Seasons: Hunting and Fishing in American Art. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016. pg. 90.
Kornhauser, Elizabeth Mankin, Tim Barringer, Chris Riopelle, Dorothy Mahon. Thomas Cole's Journey: Atlantic Crossings. New Haven: Yale Univeristy Press for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018. pg. 228.
Kusserow, Karl and Alan Braddock. Nature's Nation: American Art and the Environment. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018. pg. 113.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories, with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 58, 59, 61, 160, 161
Read, Richard and Kenneth Haltman, Nineteenth-Century Landscape Painting in Australia and the United States, Chicago: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2020, pg. 172.
Blaugrund, Anette, Thomas Cole's Studio: Memory and Inspiration, Catskill, New York: Thomas Cole Historic Site, 2022, pg. 33.
Stevens, Scott Manning, Native Prospects: Indigeneity and the Landscape. Catskill, New York: Thomas Cole Historic Site, 2024, pg. 15
Status
On view