From the exhibition Thomas Cole in Italy and Switzerland, 1841-1842
August 16, 2002-January 29, 2003
Thomas Cole made this drawing on October 18, the very day he wrote in his journal of his first sighting of the Bernese Alps:
This morning, at four, we set off for Bern…just on the descent, the most wonderful and sublime view that I ever beheld burst upon us—the Bernese Alps—vast, towering amid the hazy atmosphere of the morning—their snowy summits glittering in the sun—their bases lost in the haze.…The Snowy Alps, as they are seen far off, are difficult to describe. They are too beautiful to be compared with anything of earth; they seem of an ethereal tissue.
