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Dream of Arcadia

1851
Not on view
Cole's idyllic landscape includes a temple and figures that evoke the classical past. The related oil painting (ca. 1838; Denver Art Museum) was acquired by the American Art-Union after the artist's death in 1848. The institution boasted nearly nineteen thousand subscribers at its height in 1849–50. For an annual fee of five dollars, subscriber-members received a large, finely engraved print and were entered in a year-end lottery that distributed artworks exhibited at the Art-Union's Free Gallery. Aimed at educating the public about contemporary American art, the organization's distribution network reached members in every state and helped to create a national market for landscapes, genre paintings and small bronze sculptures. The system flourished for a limited period, however, with no lottery taking place in 1851, the year that the Art-Union issued this work as part of a set of small engravings titled "Gallery of American Art, No. I."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Dream of Arcadia
  • Series/Portfolio: Gallery of American Art, No. I
  • Engraver: James Smillie (American, Edinburgh 1807–1885 Poughkeepsie, New York)
  • Artist: After Thomas Cole (American, Lancashire 1801–1848 Catskill, New York)
  • Printer: W. E. Smith (American, mid-19th century)
  • Publisher: American Art-Union, New York (1838–51)
  • Date: 1851
  • Medium: Etching and engraving
  • Dimensions: Image: 6 11/16 × 10 3/8 in. (17 × 26.4 cm)
    Sheet: 8 7/16 × 11 5/16 in. (21.4 × 28.8 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Gift of Edith P. Blase, 1944
  • Object Number: 44.91.864
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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The Park Fountain of City Hall, New York
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Mount Auburn (Cemetary) Illustrated
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View of New York, from Jersey City
James Smillie (American, Edinburgh 1807–1885 Poughkeepsie, New York)
ca. 1831

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