OVERVIEW

Emily Cole & Valerie Hegarty: LIFE CYCLES presents a visual dialogue of two craft-based women artists across three centuries: 19th-century artist Emily Cole, daughter of Thomas Cole, and 21st-century artist Valerie Hegarty. The spotlight exhibition is on view in the Sitting Room Gallery of the 1815 Main House.

The exhibition juxtaposes more than 30 works of painted porcelain and works on paper by Emily Cole (1843–1913) with a mixed-media installation by Valerie Hegarty titled Emily Cole and Her Father, My Mother and Me (Thomas Cole’s View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow, Blackberries, Wild Flowers, Robins, Nest, and Wallpaper). The work by Valerie Hegarty was made specifically for the Thomas Cole Site in 2025 and explores the connection between Thomas Cole and Emily Cole and their fascination with cycles of life, while considering Hegarty’s own relationship with her mother.  

PRESS RELEASE

“I wanted to push forward three generations of women’s artistic labor that is historically undervalued, into one moment of the present and show a chain of inspiration and artistic influence spanning nearly 200 years from Emily Cole and her father to my mother and me. Within the ruins of this excavation, a bird feeds its chicks in the nest, suggesting the site as a source of inspiration for continuing generations.” 

—Valerie Hegarty, Artist

SPOTLIGHT EXHIBITION OBJECTS – Selection

Emily Cole, Untitled (Plate with Blackberry Blossoms), ca. 1910, painted porcelain, 2¼ x 11 in., Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Gift of Edith Cole Silberstein, TC.2002.3  

Emily Cole (1843-1913), Untitled (Sunflowers and Clover), n.d., watercolor and pencil on paper, 7 3/8 x 9 in.,Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Gift of Edith Cole Silberstein, TC.2002.2.19.33

Made possible by the Felicia Fund.

Additional support provided by New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.