The Good Shepherd

1847

Thomas Cole

Associated Names
Thomas Cole

Artist, American, 1801 - 1848

This drawing depicts a landscape viewed from an elevated vantage point. A rocky outcrop with scattered stones is at the bottom, with a shepherd holding a long crook and tending a sheep on the right side. The horizon is behind rolling hills and distant mountains, and there is a wide, flat field lined with trees between the rocky ground near us and the distant hills. The sky above has soft white clouds. The drawing is done in gray on top of beige paper with some white highlights.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    graphite and pen and ink with tan and gray wash, heightened with white, on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    John Davis Hatch Collection

  • Dimensions

    image: 18.1 × 28.26 cm (7 1/8 × 11 1/8 in.)
    sheet: 20.6 × 30.8 cm (8 1/8 × 12 1/8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1979.20.18

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

By descent to the artist's granddaughter, Florence H. Cole Vincent, Catskill, New York; John Davis Hatch [1907-1996]; gift 1979 to the National Gallery of Art

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1982

  • To Walk with Nature: The Drawings of Thomas Cole, Hudson River Museum, Kingston, NY, 1982.

2022

  • Thomas Cole's Studio: Memory and Inspiration, Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Catskill, NY; Albuquerque Museum of Art, 2022-2023 (shown only in Catskill), fig. 45, repro.

Bibliography

2022

  • Blaugrund, Annette, and Menconeri, Kate, editors.Thomas Cole's Studio: Memory and Inspiration. Exh. cat. Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Catskill; Albuquerque Museum of Art, Albuquerque, 2022-2023: 62, fig. 45.

Inscriptions

lower right in black ink: T. Cole 1847; upper left verso in graphite by unknown hand: The Good Shepherd/ last picture of/ Tho. Cole

Wikidata ID

Q64633185

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