Thomas Cole was born in Lancashire, England in 1801, and his family emigrated to America when he was seventeen years of age. He trained first as an engraver of woodblocks that were used in printing calico. He learned the basic of art from John Stein, and then attended Pennsylvania School of Fine Arts. He also spent a year engraving woodblocks in Phildelphia. In 1823 he went joined his family in Pittsbough, where he drew many cityscapes. He then moved to New York.

He traveled to Europe on a number of occasions to study the masters and his paintings in New York became more saleble as they depicted American scenes painted in the European style.

Thomas painted a number of landscapes and offered them for sale and George W Bruen purchased many of them and then financed a trip up the Hudson River. An area that many painters used often for inspiration in their work and they become known as the Hudson River School. The Hudson River School consisted of a group of artists who could see the uniqueness of the American landscape, and tried to capture it. America was a new country at that time with little tradition and not a lot of political power in the world. Some reasoned that the way to "move up" was to exploit the beauty of America's scenery in paintings or landscapes. The waterfalls, mountains, deserts and forests were different to the ones in Europe.

Thomas became a writer of these "things American", extolling the virtues of the new continent. He was scathing on modern society as it was becoming too complicated. He also painted landscapes with figures, but to enhance the position of nature in the order of things, he painted the figures smaller.

He married Maria Bartow, whose father owned a studio that Cole rented. They were both deeply religious people and were active members of the Episcopal Church.

Thomas Cole died on 1848 in New York after a few months of poor health.

He left many works that have truly brought the unique America landscapes to the attention of people all over the world. It is a good thing to own a Thomas Cole painting.