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Artist or Maker: MATHEW BRADY (1823-1896)
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Provenance: A direct relative of Thomas Cole.
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Literature: See: The National Portrait Gallery, Facing the Light: Historic American Portrait Daguerreotypes, Catalogue 6 and 7; and Panzer, Mathew Brady 55, p. 17, for variant plates of this image.
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Notes: Arriving in New York City in 1839, Mathew Brady opened his portrait studio Daguerrean Miniature Gallery on Broadway in 1844. Hoping to draw business to the studio, Brady sought out famous clients, including politicians, performers and artists. At the time of this sitting, Thomas Cole (1801-1848) was one of the best known painters of the Hudson River School. His paintings of local landscapes express moralizing allegories, many of which illustrated the "dangers of modern materialism." Portraying Cole wrapped in a velvet cloak, "alludes to not only Cole's profession but to his devotion to classical civilization". (Panzer, p. 16.) Cole was intrigued by the photographic medium. In an 1840 letter to his friend William Adams, Cole wrote, "The little I have seen of the Daguerreotype productions did not astound me - the drawings, if drawings they can be called, were extremely faint and ghostlike, but wonderfully beautiful in detail. The invention will undoubtedly be one of great value - To the artist a means of accumulating material. When I get to N. York again I hope to see some more perfect specimens than I have yet seen." (The National Portrait Gallery, p. 42). One must assume that the quality and precision of Brady's daguerreotypes intrigued him enough to have his portrait taken. Two other daguerreotypes of this image are in the collections of The National Portrait Gallery and the Brady-Handy Collection, The Library of Congress. The latter is a collection of unglazed Brady plates given to the institution by the Army War College in 1920. The National Portrait Gallery example was donated by a descendent of Thomas Cole. Comparing the provenance of these two known plates confirms the authorship and identity of the sitter. In addition, there was a carte-de-visite of this sitting produced after Cole's death. The plates from The Library of Congress and The National Portrait Gallery have been included in such exhibitions as Facing the Light, On The Art of Fixing the Shadow, and Art and the Empire City . The portrait offered here is similar in composition to The National Portrait Gallery plate, which is believed to be a copy plate of The Library of Congress image. Both are slightly larger in size.
