Explore the Provenance of this artwork, The Titan's Goblet.
Cole likely painted the picture in a fairly short period, given its small size and very thin application of paint. (The canvas is very visible in the accompanying image, viewed at full resolution.) He did so without commission, so the subject was purely his own. He asked $100 for the work, apparently based on the size of the painting—his full-scale landscapes at the time fetched $250 to $500. 
Cole sent The Titan's Goblet to Luman Reed, though it is not clear whether Reed owned it or simply reviewed it. The work was exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1834 while owned by James J. Mapes. Artist John Mackie Falconer owned it by 1863. Samuel Putnam Avery donated the painting in 1904 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.Recognized as a unique artwork, The Titan's Goblet was the only pre-20th-century American painting included at the Museum of Modern Art's "Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism" exhibition of 1936.
National Academy of Design Samuel Putnam Avery Luman Reed Museum of Modern Art John Mackie Falconer Metropolitan Museum of Art