Thomas Cole

1844

Becomes Thomas Cole’s pupil in Catskill

The son of a Hartford silversmith and jeweller, Church could pursue art early thanks to his family’s wealth, and at eighteen he became the pupil of Thomas Cole in Catskill, introduced by the family’s neighbour Daniel Wadsworth, founder of the Wadsworth Atheneum. Cole wrote that his pupil had “the finest eye for drawing in the world”; in two years of study Church toured New England and New York State making sketches.

1846

First sale, to the Wadsworth Atheneum

Church’s first recorded sale was a pastoral painting of Thomas Hooker’s journey of 1636, bought by the Wadsworth Atheneum for $130; the painter’s ancestor, the Puritan Richard Church, had accompanied Hooker. Other accounts have him selling a picture to the Atheneum after his 1848 exhibition.

1848

The youngest associate of the National Academy of Design

Church was elected the youngest Associate of the National Academy of Design, and a full member the following year. In May 1848 he was offered a solo exhibition at the Academy.

1848

A New York studio and his first pupil

Church opened a studio in New York and took his first pupil, William Stillman. As a rule he sketched outdoors from spring to autumn and finished and sold his pictures in winter.