From the Top of Kaaterskill Falls

1826

Thomas Cole American, 1801-1848

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

Image Only Image + Details All Images High Resolution TIFF Metadata

About the Artwork

Please note: This section is empty
Markings

Please note: This section is empty

This section contains information about signatures, inscriptions and/or markings an object may have.
Provenance

Please note: This section is empty

Provenance is a record of an object's ownership. We are continually researching and updating this information to show a more accurate record and to ensure that this object was ethically and legally obtained.

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:
Provenance page
Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Suggest Feedback
Published References

Please note: This section is empty

We regularly update our object record as new research and findings emerge, and we welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
Suggest Feedback
Catalogue Raisonné

Please note: This section is empty

A catalogue raisonné is an annotated listing of artworks created by an artist across different media.
Credit Line for Reproduction

Please note: This section is empty

The credit line includes information about the object, such as the artist, title, date, and medium. Also listed is its ownership, the manner in which it was acquired, and its accession number. This information must be cited alongside the object whenever it is shown or reproduced.
Audio Transcript

Please note: This section is empty

About the Artwork

The implied viewer stands a few feet from the rushing waters of a stream. The title tells us that we are in fact standing at the precipice of Kaaterskill Falls, one of the highest waterfalls in the eastern United States. Instead of showing the falls, the artist, Thomas Cole, wanted his viewers to imagine its height based on the vast vista of the ravine into which it leaps.
Kaaterskill Falls is located about fifteen miles west of the Hudson River in New York State. Cole first saw the falls in late 1825, and his paintings of the site helped make it famous. By the time he visited the falls, a local businessman had constructed a viewing platform at its top and was selling light refreshments to tourists. But Cole wanted to emphasize the wild sublimity of the scene, so he deleted all evidence of tourism from his painting.

Title From the Top of Kaaterskill Falls

Artwork Date 1826

Artist Thomas Cole

Life Dates 1801-1848

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 31 1/8 × 41 1/8 inches (79.1 × 104.5 cm) Framed: 42 1/4 × 52 1/8 × 3 1/4 inches (107.3 × 132.4 × 8.3 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 46.134

Markings

Signed Signed and dated, lower center: T. Cole | 1826

Inscriptions Inscribed, on the back (before relining): From the top of Kaaterskill Falls 1826

Provenance

1826, probably John Hone (New York, New York, USA).
1946, Old Print Shop (New York, New York, USA).
1946-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

Provenance page

Exhibition History

Please note: This section is empty

The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

Suggest Feedback

Published References

The Thirteenth Annual Exhibition. Exh. cat., The American Academy of the Fine Arts. New York, 1827, no. 120.

Van Zandt, Roland. The Catskill Mountain House. New Brunswick, NJ, 1966, pp. 135-137 (fig. 31).

Parry, Ellwood C. The Art of Thomas Cole: Ambition and Imagination. Newark, 1988, pp. 43-44, 51 (fig. 20).

Myers, Kenneth. The Catskills: Painters, Writers, and Tourists in the Mountains, 1820-1895. Exh. cat., The Hudson River Museum. Yonkers, NY, 1988, p. 113 (pl. 14).

Shaw, Nancy Rivard, et al. American Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts: Works by Artists Born Before 1816. New York, 1991, no. 16 (ill.).

Troyen, Carol. Thomas Cole and the Garden of Eden. Exh. cat., Fenimore Art Museum. Cooperstown, 2018, p. 17 (fig. 19).

Kindly share your feedback or any additional information, as this record is still a work in progress and may need further refinement.

Suggest Feedback

Catalogue Raisoneé

Please note: This section is empty

Credit Line for Reproduction

This work is in the public domain.

Thomas Cole, From the Top of Kaaterskill Falls, 1826, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. Fund, 46.134.