Albany, Taken from the East Side of the River

Thomas Cole (1801-1848)
Date: c. 1844
Medium: Ink on wove paper
Dimensions: 14 7/8 H x 17 1/2 W
Inscription: Inscribed bottom center: Albany; inscribed bottom right: Taken from the east side of the river
Provenance: Descended in the Cole Family to Mrs. Florence H.Cole Vincent, the artist's granddaughter.
Credit: Albany Institute of History & Art Purchase
Accession Number: 1940.21.1
Comments: This was a preparatory sketch for a large oil painting commissioned by a group of Albany citizens led by Isaiah Townsend. The painted mahogany panel was displayed in the cabin of the newly built USS Albany. Cole noted in a letter to Townsend that he had "made the public buildings rather more conspicuous than they appear in reality" and that he had not bothered to realistically represent the smaller buildings since "they are of so transitory a nature in an American city."