The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 37, no. 4
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 37, no. 4
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 37, no. 4
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THOMAS COLE <strong>The</strong> Fountain, 1843<br />
<strong>The</strong> founder <strong>of</strong> the Hudson River school<br />
<strong>of</strong> landscape painting, Cole was a fine<br />
draftsman as well. In this pencil drawing<br />
heightened with white on green paper,<br />
Cole illustrated a scene from <strong>The</strong> Fountain,<br />
a poem by his friend William Cullen<br />
Bryant that followed the history <strong>of</strong> this<br />
country from Indian times to Bryant's<br />
depict a moment early in the poem when<br />
an Indian warrior, mortally wounded in<br />
battle, crawls to a fountain to "slake his<br />
death thirst." Cole's inscription, "<strong>The</strong><br />
Fountain No. 1," probably indicates that<br />
he intended the drawing to be a study for<br />
one <strong>of</strong> a series <strong>of</strong> paintings illustrating<br />
Bryant's poem, and the artist may well<br />
dants, as an example <strong>of</strong> the planned series.<br />
<strong>The</strong> drawing was done late in the artist's<br />
short career, and reflects his study <strong>of</strong> the<br />
drawings <strong>of</strong> the British landscapist John<br />
Constable. <strong>The</strong> s<strong>of</strong>t pencil strokes and<br />
evocative use <strong>of</strong> Chinese white in the sky<br />
mark a loosening <strong>of</strong> his earlier, tighter<br />
style. Although Cole is well k<strong>no</strong>wn for
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