Mountain Landscape [verso]

Thomas Cole

Graphite on wove paper

National Gallery of Art

Mountain Landscape [verso] is a graphite drawing on wove paper executed by Thomas Cole around 1828, the reverse side of a double-sided sheet reflecting Cole's practice of sketching directly from nature in the field. The circa 1828 date coincides with Cole's documented second visit to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where he toured with fellow artist Henry Cheever Pratt and accumulated a body of observational landscape studies. Working in graphite, Cole captured the essential forms of rugged mountain terrain with the economy and directness characteristic of his preparatory drawings, which served as the raw material for finished studio paintings. As the founder of the Hudson River School, Cole elevated American landscape into a vehicle of national identity and Romantic feeling, and these intimate field sketches illuminate the empirical foundation beneath his grand painted visions.