CATSKILL, NY.- The Thomas Cole National Historic Site announced today the exhibition Thomas Cole: An American Visionary – a dynamic installation of landscape paintings, painting objects, and easels of Thomas Cole (1801-1848) that explores his evolution into an artist of international renown. Cole’s paintings conveyed a visual identity for a young nation and continue to inspire artists to this day.

The exhibition illuminates Cole’s beginnings as an artist, his creative process and inspirations, his deep connection to the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson Valley, and his emergence as an international artist. The exhibition also explores Cole’s role as teacher and mentor to Frederic Church (1826- 1900), the 200th anniversary of whose birth is being celebrated this year. The exhibition includes 16 original paintings by Thomas Cole and one by Frederic Church (painted while a student of Cole), plus drawings and sketches, painting objects, easels, and sources of inspiration. It will open on April 25 and run through December 2026.

This will be the inaugural exhibition in the new Richard Sharp Gallery on the second floor of the 1815 Main House of the Thomas Cole Site. The gallery is already affectionately known simply as “The Rick,” a light-hearted take on a prominent New York City museum.
Rick Sharp’s substantial contribution to redesign the gallery space and support related programming inspired leading experts to become involved in the project. The gallery is designed by Architectural Digest 100 Stephen Shadley, the acclaimed New York City- based interior and architectural designer, who is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Thomas Cole Site and best known for creating homes for Hollywood stars including Jennifer Aniston and Diane Keaton.

Helping to envision the new space are such nationally renowned authorities as Betsy Kornhauser, Curator Emerita at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Dan Kershaw, the Senior Exhibition Designer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Carrie Feder, the Independent Curator who spearheaded the restoration of the interiors of the Main House alongside Jean Dunbar.

To commemorate the opening of the Richard Sharp Gallery and inaugural exhibition, Rick Sharp has donated the iconic Thomas Cole painting Diagram of Contrasts to the permanent collection of the Thomas Cole Site. It has previously been on long-term loan to the Site. Now famous as Cole’s “Color Wheel,” this painting was a “tool” that he created as a diagram of contrasts to guide him in his studio to shade landscapes and complement colors. Over the years it has become, in effect, the “Rosetta Stone” of the Hudson River School of landscape painting, used to decipher the visual harmony and relationship of colors in many 19th-century American landscapes.

“I first saw the “Color Wheel” when an issue of The Magazine Antiques arrived in my mail in 2006. I was immediately captivated by it,” said Rick Sharp. “I asked myself how it was that Thomas Cole could have painted this work in 1834, when it has the visual impact of a modern abstract painting, so unlike his landscapes. When I was fortunate to acquire it, I knew that it was a masterwork that I could not selfishly hang on my wall. It had to be seen and in no better place than its home, where Cole used it in his studio. I am now thrilled that it will be featured in the inaugural gallery exhibition and become part of the historic site’s permanent collection.”

Rick’s donation of the funds to redesign the gallery and of the “Color Wheel” continues and extends his longstanding support of the Thomas Cole Site. Rick has gifted to the Site the largest number of artworks and objects by Thomas Cole from a private individual outside of the artist’s family. In addition, he has made long-term loans of still more Cole artworks, including the earliest work known to be painted by Cole, which will also be featured in the exhibition.