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A View of the Two Lakes and Mountain House, Catskill Mountains, Morning
Accession # 52.16
Artist Thomas Cole
Title A View of the Two Lakes and Mountain House, Catskill Mountains, Morning
Date 1844
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 35 13/16 x 53 7/8 in. (91 x 136.9 cm) frame: 43 13/16 x 61 7/8 x 3 1/4 in. (111.3 x 157.2 x 8.3 cm)
Signed Signed lower right: "T Cole / 1844"
Credit Line Dick S. Ramsay Fund
Location Visible Storage: Case 24, Screen F (Paintings)

Curatorial Remarks: Nestled in this panoramic landscape by Thomas Cole is the popular focal point of Catskill tourism—the Mountain House, opened in 1824. The title designates the time to be morning—recalling the fact that Mountain House visitors were routinely roused at daybreak to observe the sun rising over the Hudson River. Set on 300 acres of a high plateau known as Pine Orchard, the resort offered dramatic mountain and valley views. Cole placed the Mountain House within a panoramic expanse that included some of the area’s best-known features, including the distinctive mountain peaks of High Peak and Round Top, and North and South Lakes.