Falls of the Kaaterskill (1826) is oil on canvas painting by the founder of the Hudson River School and American artist Thomas Cole. Born in England, Thomas Cole emigrated to the then British colony of North America when he was 17 and took up a career as a painter, specializing in landscapes and portraits. From 1825 he lived in New York, where he soon gained a reputation as a landscape painter, particularly after a trip along the Hudson River, which he undertook to paint in a number of canvases. This was the start of the Hudson River School which Cole founded and which attracted other artists such as Durand and Church, who worked in a similar style. Cole's generation initiated a truly American style of painting, which developed for the first time in the 19th century and which focused on landscape, genre painting and still-life. The painting (109 x 92 cm) is now in the Private collection.