The Dead Abel

The Dead Abel is an 1832 oil-on-paper painting by British-American painter Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School. It depicts the dead biblical figure Abel.[1] It was originally intended to be a study for a larger painting; however, this other work was never created.

The Dead Abel
The Dead Abel, 1832
ArtistThomas Cole
Year1832
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions43 cm × 72 cm (17 in × 28.5 in)
LocationAlbany Institute of History & Art, Albany, New York

Artist's background
Main article: Thomas Cole

Tom Christopher wrote that "[Thomas] Cole’s greatest artistic asset proved to be his untutored eye."[2][3] Cole emigrated to America with his family in the spring of 1819 at the age of eighteen.[4] As a child, his surroundings were of Lancashire, England, an area known to be an epicenter of Britain’s primarily industrial region. Because of this, Cole was granted an additional clarity of and sensitivity to the vibrancy of American landscapes awash with color, a stark contrast to the bleak and subdued landscapes of the country he left behind.[5] As he aged and recognized his own mortality, Cole transitioned away from natural landscape paintings to focus on works conveying religious and spiritual themes.[6]

History

Cole painted The Dead Abel at the Accademia di San Luca in Florence, Italy. Cole intended the work to be a study for a larger painting which would have depicted Adam and Eve discovering Abel's body. This painting was never made.[1]

See also

References
  1. "The Dead Abel". Albany Institute of History and Art. Retrieved September 6, 2020.
  2. Christopher, "Living Off the Landscape", 1.
  3. "Living Off the Landscape". National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Retrieved 2020-09-07.
  4. Noble, The Life and Works of Thomas Cole, 6.
  5. Great Northern Catskills of Greene County. "Hudson River School of Art", 1.
  6. Genocchio, Benjamin (June 18, 2006). "In an Untamed Wilderness, Finding the Serene". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 15, 2018. Retrieved August 18, 2020.

Works cited
  • Christopher, Tom. "Living Off the Landscape: How Thomas Cole and Frederick Church made Themselves at Home in the Hudson River Valley." Humanities 30, no. 4 (2009):6-11.
  • Noble, Luis Legrand. The Life and Works of Thomas Cole. Edited by Elliot S. Vesell Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1964.
  • Great Northern Catskills of Greene County. “Hudson River School of Art”. http://www.greatnortherncatskills.com/arts-culture/hudson-river-school-art.
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