Hidden beneath paint, a famed artist's wall decorations

CATSKILL, N.Y. -- Not only did Thomas Cole paint the lush mountain landscapes that inspired the Hudson River School art movement of the 19th century, but he also painted on the walls of his home.

This photo shows a detail of a decorative wall border being restored at the home of artist Thomas Cole on Aug. 20 in Catskill, New York.Barbara Woike ~ Associated Press

Lost beneath layers of paint for more than a century, the patterned borders below the ceilings were rediscovered several years ago and now are revealed in their semi-faded glory.

The stylized depictions of drapery and fabric, painstakingly recovered by conservators, will be displayed fully when the Thomas Cole National Historic Site opens for the season in May. While not exactly lost masterworks, they offer new insight into one of America's most influential painters.

"His choice of designs ... are his way of expressing his personality, the way he wanted people to see him and the way he wanted people to see his art," said Elizabeth Jacks, executive director of the site. "It tells us a lot of what was going on in the mind of this person at the time in his life when he was creating these incredible artworks."

Cole is believed to have painted the borders around the time he moved into the house in 1836 to provide a sort of frame for paintings displayed on the parlor walls. One sunny parlor features abstract folds of a fabric in blue and green; the other features a more elaborate pattern depicting drapery swags.

Art restoration expert Margaret Saliske works on hand-painted borders at the home of artist Thomas Cole on Feb. 27 in Catskill, New York.Michael Hill ~ Associated Press

While Cole did not sign his name on the walls, there's evidence of the master's hand.

Cole had experience making designs on fabric and wallpaper and had been impressed with the ornate Roman wall decorations he saw on a tour of Pompeii and Herculaneum. A then-rare ultramarine blue pigment points to a painter of Cole's stature. And there are no records of payments made for the work among the household's meticulous financial records.

Cole died in 1848 at age 47, though the home in this village 100 miles north of New York City remained with the family for more than a century. At some point, no one knows exactly why, the border art was covered up by wallpaper and then layers of paint. One parlor had successive coats of green, cream, dark green, light blue, periwinkle and more.

This photo shows a decorative border in the east parlor of the home of artist Thomas Cole on Nov. 17 in Catskill, New York.Jennifer Greim ~ Thomas Cole National Historic Site via AP

The lost art was discovered after historic paint expert Matthew J. Mosca in 2014 examined a bit of what looked like exposed wallpaper up high in a pantry. A closer look revealed it was a painted design.

"When I got up on a ladder and looked at it, I thought, 'Oh, my God,'" he recalled.

The discovery in the parlors followed, and Mosca and art restorer Margaret Saliske began carefully removing decades of wall paint with scalpels and solvent.

This Aug. 20 photo shows Cedar Grove, the home of artist Thomas Cole, considered the founder of the famous genre of American landscape painting known as the Hudson River School, in Catskill, New York.Barbara Woike ~ Associated Press, file

Saliske finished uncovering the designs this winter and took up a fine-tipped paint brush for the delicate restoration work. High on a scaffold, she spent a recent morning dabbing in paint where the original work is missing, careful never to overlap Cole's work.

"I'll circle around and bump up against the edge with my color," she said, "but I'm honoring every little piece of paint."

She matched color by eye, mixing paint and ground pigment to get exactly the right intensity and transparency.

In this image taken from video, art restoration expert Margaret Saliske prepares to work on restoring hand-painted borders at the home of artist Thomas Cole on Feb. 27 in Catskill, New York.Michael Hill ~ Associated Press

Saliske has restored about 5 feet of one border in one parlor, and the site is seeking grant money to restore more. The goal is to fully restore three of the four walls in each parlor, giving visitors a sense of both the discovered work and what the walls looked like 180 years ago when Cole gazed at the forested mountains outside his windows.