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Collections

Thomas Cole
Il Penseroso1845

On view:
Geffen Galleries, floor 2
Oil painting of an Italian landscape with a wooded lake, hilltop town, and a crumbling devotional shrine wall with a kneeling figure in white in the foreground
Artist or Maker
Thomas Cole
England, Lancashire, Bolton-le-Moor, active United States, 1801-1848
Title
Il Penseroso
Place Made
United States
Date Made
1845
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Canvas: 32 3/8 × 48 1/16 in. (82.23 × 122.08 cm) Frame: 45 1/2 × 61 1/2 × 4 in. (115.57 × 156.21 × 10.16 cm)
Credit Line
Trustees Fund, Corporate Donors, and General Acquisition Fund
Accession Number
M.80.115
Classification
Paintings
Collecting Area
American Art
Curatorial Notes
Best known for his depictions of the American wilderness, Cole also traveled extensively throughout Europe, visiting Italy in 1831-32 and 1841-42. While Il Penseroso is based on his sketches of Lake Nemi, near Rome, drawn in 1832, L’Allegro is an imaginary arcadian scene. The paintings’ titles refer to a pair of poems by John Milton, although Cole did not recreate specific settings, instead translating their moods—one cheerful, the other melancholic—into the visual language of landscape.
Provenance

Charles M. Parker, New York § James V. Parker, New York (by descent; sale, American Art Association, New York, Oil Paintings ... Belonging to the Estate of the Late James V. Parker, January 4, 1918, no. 100, as The Shrine) § F. A. Lawlor, 1918 § (Sale, Chicago, September 1979, as a nineteenth-century English painting) § With Leonard E. Stark Fine Paintings, Bristol, Ill., 1979-80.

Commissioned 1845 by Charles Maverick Parker (1797–1872), New York, by descent to his son; James Vandenburgh Parker (1830–1917), New York (sale, New York, American Art Association, “Oil Paintings ... Belonging to the Estate of the Late James V. Parker,” 4 January 1918, lot 100, as The Shrine, to); [F. A. Lawlor and Co., New York (sale, Chicago, September 1979, as a nineteenth‑century English painting), to]; [Leonard E. Stark Fine Paintings, Bristol, Illinois, sold 1980 to]; LACMA.
Selected Bibliography
  • Accademia di Francia a Roma; Commune di Roma; Direction des Musées de France; Ministero per I Bene e le Attivita Culturali; Musei Vaticani; and Università à Roma Tre. Maestà di Roma: Da Napoleone all'Unità d'Italia. Milan: Mondadori Electa SpA, 2003.
  • Fort, Ilene Susan and Michael Quick. American Art: a Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.
  • Morgan, David and Promey, Sally M. The Visual Culture of American Religions. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
  • LACMA: Obras Maestras 1750-1950: Pintura Estadounidense Del Museo De Arte Del Condado De Los Angeles. Mexico, D.F.: Museo Nacional de Arte, 2006.