Artwork Page for View of Florence

Details / Information for View of Florence

View of Florence

1837

Thomas Cole

(American, born England,1801–1848)
Culture
America
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
Framed: 125.4 x 186.7 x 9.2 cm (49 3/8 x 73 1/2 x 3 5/8 in.); Unframed: 99.5 x 160.4 cm (39 3/16 x 63 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1961.39
Public Domain
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Location
206 American Landscape
Print
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Did You Know?

Novelist Henry James grew up with this painting and described its foreground monk as his “constant friend.”

Description

Cole visited Italy in 1831 and made a small pencil sketch of this vista of Florence shortly before sunset. In his New York studio six years later, he transformed the drawing into this large oil painting, adding picturesque humans and goats to the foreground. Exhibiting View of Florence alongside a painting of the Catskill Mountains in New York in 1837, Cole set out to prove that he had mastered the very different landscapes of the Old and New Worlds.
A horizontally oriented oil painting shows the city of Florence, the sun setting over the mountains in the background, casting orange rooftops in golden light. On the left, a river and bridge cut through the city. On the right rises the orange dome and bell tower of the city's Duomo, or cathedral. Left of the cathedral stands a castle-like structure with a single tower. In the foreground people and goats relax in front of the overlook's wall.

View of Florence

1837

Thomas Cole

(American, born England,1801–1848)
America

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