Landscape, The Vesper Hymn: An Italian Twilight
Artist: Thomas Cole (American (born England), 1801-1848)
Date: 1841
Dimensions:
H: 34 1/4 in. (87 cm); W: 46 3/16 in. (117.3 cm)
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: 1954.76
Label Text:In a timeless, romantic Italian landscape at sunset, a shepherd sings a hymn to a statue of the Madonna and Child. Thomas Cole pursued what he called “a higher style of landscape” that could express allegorical themes of morality and religion. Though better known for his vistas of the American wilderness, Cole, like many of his fellow American painters, spent time traveling in Europe and sketching the countryside there.
Landscape, The Vesper Hymn was painted for wealthy New York merchant Thomas Hall Faile and was apparently loosely inspired by English romantic poet Felicia Heymans’ Spanish Evening Hymn. Subjects that combined romantic literature and romantic landscape were in demand by wealthy, well-educated Americans in the mid-1800s who wanted to express their cultured tastes.
Landscape, The Vesper Hymn was painted for wealthy New York merchant Thomas Hall Faile and was apparently loosely inspired by English romantic poet Felicia Heymans’ Spanish Evening Hymn. Subjects that combined romantic literature and romantic landscape were in demand by wealthy, well-educated Americans in the mid-1800s who wanted to express their cultured tastes.
On view
In Collection(s)