The Architect’s Dream
Artist: Thomas Cole (American (born England), 1801-1848)
Date: 1840
Dimensions:
painting: 53 in. x 84 1/16 in. (134.7 x 213.6 cm)
frame: 58 3/4 x 90 3/8 x 3 1/2 in.
Medium: oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott
Object number: 1949.162
Label Text:Architectural monuments from the distant past dominate the Architect’s Dream, presenting a continuum of the styles from which 19th-century architects took inspiration. In the misty distance, an Egyptian pyramid towers over an Egyptian temple. Two Greek temples are joined by a wall of pilasters (rectangular columns, attached rather than free-standing). Above this wall, a Roman aqueduct and a round Roman temple rest on the foundation of Greek architecture. In the foreground a Gothic church rises out of the forest.
The dreaming architect in question reclines on huge books of building designs atop a monumental column inscribed with the artist’s name and the name of the patron, architect Ithiel Town (1784-1844). Town, along with his colleague Alexander Jackson Davis, popularized the Greek and Gothic Revival architectural styles in America.
The dreaming architect in question reclines on huge books of building designs atop a monumental column inscribed with the artist’s name and the name of the patron, architect Ithiel Town (1784-1844). Town, along with his colleague Alexander Jackson Davis, popularized the Greek and Gothic Revival architectural styles in America.
On view
In Collection(s)