Hudson River Chronicles: In Search of the Splendid & Sublime on America's 'First' River: 1 (Lives of Famous Artists)

The year is 1825 and a young ambitious Englishman has arrived in burgeoning New York City at the auspicious moment of the opening of Erie Canal. Thomas Cole is an artist with skills he spent years mastering. In a nation of immigrants and upstarts his challenge is to navigate through a complex tight-knit community of emerging artists hide-bound critics and wealthy patrons searching for ways to support his dream. There are other obstacles as well: a new nation still tied to Old World values; a dependent fathers failing business ventures; and his own recurring periods of faltering self-confidence loneliness and melancholy.In this work of historical fiction the author reads between the lines of Coles many journals letters and essays to reanimate the essence of the man his motivation inspiration and travels given the harsh realities of city and country life in the early 19th century. In a more contemporary context the author explores the same Hudson River valleys towns and surrounding mountains that Cole would have known. The regions timeless allure for both travelers--stories separated by nearly two centuries--offer new perspectives on the life and times of the Father of the Hudson River School of painting; and that of a fellow modern sojourner drawn as Cole was to the splendor of Americas first river.