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FRAMING INFORMATION
1st Art Gallery offers the option to receive your painting ready to hang or rolled in a tube.
Currently, for safety, we're able to ship framed paintings only up to a certain size. Once the maximum size is reached, the framing option is automatically disabled.
However, if you are interested in stretching or framing a painting larger than 24x36 inches (60x90 cm), please contact one of our customer success associates or let us know in your order notes. We will send you a catalog of our large framing styles and pricing options.
Unframed rolled canvas orders will arrive rolled inside a protective tube with an extra 1.5" white canvas on all sides so you can easily frame it locally.


While the English-American painter Thomas Cole was rarely ever matched in technique and aesthetic sensibility in his landscape paintings, the aspect that most differentiates him from other landscape painters is his lifelong effort to uplift the genre. Although most of his contemporaries would have seen landscapes as a lesser genre when compared to portraits or paintings with historical, mythological or religious themes, Cole repeatedly showed just how powerful and loaded with meaning a landscape could be, at times blending the genre with other more prestigious, like we can see done here.
Still enjoying the success of his most famous work to date, The Course of Empire, a series of five canvases depicting the rise and fall of civilization as he saw it, Cole received over the following years a significant number of requests of commissioned artwork from wealthy patrons. This painting is, then, part of a pair of related paintings belonging to that group. The pair of paintings was commissioned in 1838 by the prominent New Yorker Peter Gerard Stuyvesant, who was not only an extremely wealthy landowner and philanthropist, but also the then president of the New-York Historical Society, the very same group that had, just a few years earlier, commissioned The Course of Empire.
In this series, Cole depicts two scenes set in the same place, but at different times. The site in question is a castle of loosely Late Norman inspiration, due to the construction methods employed and the model of the crenellations. In this first painting of the series, the scene is vivacious, with the castle bustling with activity and a joyful jousting tournament being held at its feet. The competition is watched by a vast and colorful crowd and the flags of the knights engaged in sporting combat flutter in the summer wind. The second painting in the series is titled The Present, and to this day accompanies its pair in the Mead Art Museum in Amherst College, depicting the same place, but now the castle is abandoned by all but a shepherd and nature has reclaimed the landscape, covering the stone and mortar in ivy.
Neither Cole nor his contemporaries ever hid their nostalgic, if somehow idealistic, view of the Middle Ages, a counterpoint to the Rationalism of their time. That contrariness extended to political ideology, as Cole was distrustful of Democracy, preferring Monarchy.
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Real Oil Paints, Real Brushes, Real Artists, Real Art. The Certificate of Authenticity which arrives with every painting provides an assurance and verifies the authenticity of the hand painted fine art reproduction you purchased. Each oil painting is created by hand using only the finest canvas and oil paints available.
Important Notes About Your Painting:
If you have any request to alter your reproduction of The Past, you must email us after placing your order and we'll have an artist contact you. If you have another image of The Past that you would like the artist to work from, please include it as an attachment. Otherwise, we will reproduce the above image for you exactly as it is.
- Ordered without a frame, it will be delivered in protective tube within 21-28 business days.
- When ordering the painting framed - allow additional 5-7 days for delivery. The painting will arrive ready to hang.
- Every painting is painted by an experienced artist.
- No printing or digital imaging techniques are used.
- 100% hand painted oil painting on artist grade canvas.
- Painting comes with a Certificate of Authenticity.
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- Hand crafted means unique to every owner. Each canvas reproduction may vary slightly in brush details due to the nature of being hand painted, so no two paintings are the same.
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Free shipping is included in the price of the painting. Once the painting is ready and dry enough to ship, we will roll it and ship it in a sturdy cardboard tube.
We always ship express via courier to ensure your order reaches you as soon as possible - normally within three business days. The total delivery time from the moment you place your order until the package is delivered to your door is normally between three to four weeks.

If, in the unlikely event you were dissatisfied with the painting after reviewing it in person, it can be returned for a full refund for up to 365 days after delivery.
When you receive the painting; you are free to return it for more revisions or else for a full refund minus our actual shipping cost -- which is, on average, $35 per painting.

1st Art Gallery provides a full warranty covering manufacturing and material defects for paintings purchased from our website. The warranty covers damage for normal use. Damage caused by incidents such as accidents or inappropriate use are not covered.
Depending on the degree of damage to the warranted painting, it will either be repaired or replaced. This warranty service is provided free of charge.
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