Study for The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds
Artist
Thomas Cole
(American, 1801 - 1848)
CultureAmerican
Date1831
MediumOil on board
Dimensions7 x 8 3/4 in. (17.8 x 22.2 cm)
Overall, Frame: 11 x 13 in. (27.9 x 33 cm)
Overall, Frame: 11 x 13 in. (27.9 x 33 cm)
InscribedSigned and dated on the reverse:;
Thomas Cole;
Florence 1831
Credit LineMuseum purchase
Object number86.193
Not on view
DescriptionThis is an oil on board study for the painting, _The Angels Appearing to the Shepherds_ (80.30). It is one of three preparatory sketches for the large painting. On the left side of the canvas, a palm tree leans as an angel dressed in blue, with pink wings, glides toward the shepherds. There appear to be four shepherds: one standing behind the others, two kneeling, and one shepherd in the front with his head bowed down. Sheep graze under the palm tree.Label TextThomas Cole American, 1801–1848 Studies for The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds, ca. 1831 Oil on board In Florence in 1831, Thomas Cole made sketches for a large painting of the angel Gabriel announcing the birth of Jesus to awe-struck shepherds. A palm tree suggests the exotic Mediterranean location of this biblical event. The artist ultimately moved the palm within the final composition and reduced the number of shepherds from four to three. Arranged in sequence from youngest to oldest, the shepherds embody three stages of life: youth, manhood, and old age. Like The Voyage of Life, this work demonstrates Cole’s talent in depicting both realistic landscape details and imaginative supernatural events. Museum purchase 86.193 Museum purchase with funds from the Armour Foundation 84.32 ProvenanceMrs. Florence Cole Hill Vincent; Mr. Vint Vanderzee, Selkirk, N.Y., 1970; Mr. Pieter Vanderzee, 1974; Kennedy Galleries, New York, N.Y.; Christie's New York Sale catalogue, Friday, May 30, 1986, N.Y.; Museum Purchase, The Chrysler Museum, 1986. Exhibition History"Grand Designs: Preliminary Drawings and Oil Sketches from The Chrysler Museum," Prints and Drawings Gallery, The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., April 2 - June 22, 1994. "Thomas Cole's Voyage of Life," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, October 21, 2014 - January 18, 2015.Published ReferencesEllwood C. Parry III, "Thomas Cole and the Problem of Figure Painting," _American Art Journal_ 4 (March 1972): 81. Christie's, _Important American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture of the 19th and 20th Centuries_, auction cat., New York, N.Y., April 30, 1986, no. 9A. Jefferson C. Harrison, _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_ (Norfolk: The Chrysler Museum, 1991), 93, no. 71. ISBN: 0-940744-59-7, 0-940744-62-7 Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 54, no. 26. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6
