Thomas Cole's "Ruins in the Campagna di Roma, Morning"

Two weeks ago I visited the Seattle Art Museum with Cheryl to see the current exhibit "Seeing Nature" which showcases landscape paintings from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection. It was a nice selection of work ranging from 17th Century Flemish Painting through the late 20th Century. My favorites were Jan Brueghel the Younger's "Five Senses" series, views of Venice by Canaletto, a Turner, two Thomas Moran paintings, and a Thomas Cole.

Ruins in the Campagna di Roma, Morning, Thomas Cole, 1842, Oil on Panel

 Paul G. Allen Family Collection

I especially loved seeing Thomas Cole's Ruins in the Campagna di Roma, Morning. The glow of light was inspiring to see and I thought of how I can paint Washington State's landscapes such as the Cascades and Mt. Si. Cheryl looked at this painting and understood the direction I am headed in my own work.

Cole's painting is on a panel. I'm not sure about the dimensions but it could be 14" x 20" making it one of the smaller landscapes in the exhibit. It's intimate scale combined with the wonderful soft colors in the sky, mountains, and glowing light make this painting extremely enjoyable to view.

I went back to the Seattle Art Museum three days later. I was with 5 middle school and high school students from my drawing and painting class which I taught during Experiential Learning Week at Academy for Precision Learning. I wanted them to see the "Seeing Nature" exhibit because I was teaching them landscape painting.

My Observations on Cole's Technique
Towards the end of our museum visit, my students were content using the large digital painting tablets and I had a chance to revisit Cole's painting. The paras that went with my group kept an eye on the kids.

I noticed quite a few things about Cole's technique during my second viewing that I didn't see before. The sky is luminous throughout and there are several factors that contribute to this effect. The pigments that Cole used had a grainy texture, even in the blue sky. I'm not doing any pigment sample analysis so I can only assume what pigments Cole was using based on my knowledge of the pigments available at the time. It's hard to say if his ultramarine blue is genuine Lapis or the synthetic version. When you view the painting the graininess of this paint is quite apparent. The grainy texture is also found in the pink clouds.

The texture may be attributed to the pigment which Cole used to tone his ground. Subsequent paint layers appear quite thin in the sky and this would have allowed the graininess of the toned ground to remain.

Another factor which helps make the sky luminous are the brush strokes Cole used. His sky was not blended smooth horizontally across his panel. Instead Cole used his brush to create strokes which radiate from the light. This is easily seen in the sky. He painted the sky and when he was finished he used a dry brush to create radiating strokes. These strokes combined with the grainy texture of the paint catch the light in the museum and give sky it's glow.

It looks like Cole toned his ground pink in the sky. This appears to be a combination of Venetian Red and lead white. The pink shows up in his cloud formations, the area of light and surrounding blue sky, and within his mountains. On the mountains the pink ground which is revealed serves as highlights from the light of the sun. I didn't observe the pink ground in the foreground landscape or within the cracks of the architecture( Not sure what that is called). Thus it seems that Cole toned the ground only within the sky and mountains. I would need a third look at the painting to see if the pink was used throughout the rest of the painting.

Because this painting is on panel, it's preservation is excellent. The only areas which show cracks are within the architecture. This was probably painted with asphaltum which tends to shrink as it dries and ages. This was a common pigment used in the 18th-19th Centuries favored for it's rich, dark, transparent qualities.

For those in the Seattle area who love painting I highly recommend see the exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum. The variety of paintings showcase how different artists interpreted nature over the centuries. If you're a fan of Hudson River School painting you will enjoy Cole's painting and Thomas Moran's masterpiece showing the Grand Canyon.