Brother Thomas Cole

Thomas Cole (1801-48),artist and Freemason, is regarded today as one of America’s finest painters of the 19th Century. The founder of the so-called Hudson River School of Landscape Painting, Cole was among the first artists to turn to American mountains and rivers as picture subjects. Having come from England with his father’s family as the seventh of eight children, Brother Cole later became an ardent admirer of American scenery and a true moralist in his art.

After helping out in his father’s clothing business in Philadelphia, at age 21 he decided to become an artist. Looking for clients as an itinerant portrait painter, he walked on foot to St. Clairsville and Zanesville, Ohio. There, Brother Cole, seeking Masonic light, was raised a Master Mason in Amity Lodge #5, Zanesville. In 1825, after two years of study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, he moved to New York City.

A positive appraisal of his work by the famous poet William Cullen Bryant helped him to launch a brilliant career in New York where, in 1826, he became co-founder of the National Academy of Design. After his marriage to Maria Bartow, he moved to Catskill on the Hudson River in upstate New York. There he enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the Adirondacks which became the most prominent subject of his many landscape pictures. Even in England his art was well received. On a trip to Europe, he met the most famous English artist of his time, Joseph Turner, and held an exhibit at the Royal Academy in London.

In his paintings, Cole tried to show the presence of God in nature. His landscapes are often topographically correct yet dramatize the scene to give us an idea of the sublime workings of the Deity. A highly religious man, Cole joined the Episcopalian Church late in his life.

His connection with the Craft is clearly seen in his moralizing series, The Course of Empire (1836). In these five paintings, Cole develops a parable for the rise and downfall of a great empire. Although the setting is reminiscent of Greek and Roman antiquity, it is clear in the series that Cole refers to the rise of America as a nation. The final scene, The Consummation of Empire, serves as a cautionary reminder to the young American democracy not to follow the vainglorious way of ancient Rome.

Brother Thomas Cole's series "The Voyage of Life", (1842)

Childhood

Youth

Manhood

Old Age

In The Voyage of Life (1842), a beautiful series of four large paintings (52” x 77” inches) presently displayed in Gallery 64 of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C, the artist shows four stages in the life of man: Childhood, Youth, Man-hood, and Old Age. The four scenes dramatically illustrate the helplessness of the newborn child, the vain dreams of youth, the importance of prayer in the storms of life during manhood, and the peaceful tranquillity of a serene old age. By way of engravings, this set of paintings, above all his other works, made Cole famous in America.

Although the limited size of the illustrations of these paintings in this article do not do justice to the exacting detail of Cole’s work, a close reading of each painting reveals many interesting symbolic elements. In Childhood, a guardian angel guides the infant out of the dark womb of time along a calm stream through an Edenic landscape rife with spring flowers, all illuminated by a rising sun. The sand in the hourglass at the bow of the boat is just starting to run. The hourglass, with more and more sand having run through it, is a constant in the following two scenes of youth and manhood.

In Youth, the protagonist is now manning his boat, and the angel is on shore, gesturing hopefully toward the young man’s life goal, which is represented by a fantastic castle in the sky. The tall date palm to the right bears fruit, symbolic of life’s pending attainments.

In Manhood, the stream of life has become a cataract racing through a barren, craggy landscape and toward a dangerous waterfall. The man prays for salvation as his battered bark hurls forward. His guardian angel, seen in the bright patch of sky at the left upper portion of the painting, watches helplessly from afar.

In Old Age, the now grizzled protagonist sits calmly in his boat which no longer has the hourglass from its bow, signifying the end of his time on Earth. The water of life’s river is serene, and his guardian angel is now close at hand and pointing to a welcoming angel in the opening, light-filled western sky of eternity.

While working on a third series of paintings, The Cross and the World, based on John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Cole died at his Catskill home in 1848 of an inflammation of the lungs.

Cole’s love of nature and American scenery made him a patriot while the moral and ethical lessons he taught in his art made him a worthy exponent of the central teachings of Freemasonry and an example for other artists.

Andreas M. Gehlert, Valley of Washington, D.C., is a German art historian specializing in American art. A member of Pacific Lodge, Amherst, Massachusetts, Bro. Gehlert holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Massachusetts and a Ph.D. from Freiburg University, Germany. Contact: Heinrich-hertz-str 5, 60486 Frankfurt Germany