Andrea Macko reports for Porcupine Soup that Thomas Cole’s painting "View Near Catskill" sold Jan. 18 for more than half a million dollars at Christie’s auction house in New York City. An undisclosed buyer paid $504,000 for "View Near Catskill." The painting, created in 1828 and 1829, shows the plateau of Jefferson Heights in the foreground and Kaaterskill High Peak and Roundtop Mountain. Cole is considered to be the first major American landscape painter, and The Thomas Cole House in Catskill celebrates his work. "View Near Catskill" was originally owned by General Stephen Van Rensselaer III, a U.S. congressperson, president of the Albany Institute, and a founder of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Read more about this story at Porcupine Soup.