Search results
The Course of Empire is a series of five paintings created by the English-born American painter Thomas Cole between 1833 and 1836. It is notable in part for reflecting popular American sentiments of the times, when many saw pastoralism as the ideal phase of human civilization, fearing that empire would lead to gluttony and inevitable decay.
Jul 13, 2022 · The Course of Empire (1833-1836) paintings represent the rise and collapse of an imagined metropolis on the lowest end of a river valley, at its confluence with a seaside bay. The valley is clearly visible in each of the works, thanks in part to an uncommon landmark: a big rock perched atop a cliff overlooking the valley.
With The Course of Empire, Thomas Cole achieved what he described as a "higher style of landscape," one suffused with historical associations, moralistic narrative, and what the artist felt were universal truths about mankind and his abiding relationship with the natural world.
Mar 24, 2023 · The Course of Empire is a series of five paintings created by Thomas Cole in the years 1833–1836. It is notable in part for reflecting popular American sentiments of the times, when many saw pastoralism as the ideal phase of human civilization, fearing that empire would lead to gluttony and inevitable decay. The theme of cycles is one that ...
New-York Historical Society curator Wendy Nālani E. Ikemoto introduces one of the signature pieces in our collection and artist Thomas Cole's magnum opus, a large-scale landscape series—created between 1833 and 1836—that charts the birth and death of an imaginative empire.
Starting in 1833 Thomas Cole spent 3 years creating The Course of Empire, a series of five paintings describing the arc of human culture from ‘savage wilderness’ through high civilization and its inevitable destruction.
The Course of Empire: Destruction is an allegorical oil painting created in 1836 by American painter Thomas Cole, part of his five-painting series The Course of Empire.
The Course of Empire: The Arcadian or Pastoral State. While Thomas Cole built a successful career painting the scenery of the Hudson River Valley, he aspired to imbue landscape with a...
Title: The Course of Empire: The Arcadian or Pastoral State. Artist: Thomas Cole (American, Lancashire 1801–1848 Catskill, New York) Date: 1834. Culture: American. Medium: Oil on canvas. Dimensions: 39 1/4 × 63 1/4 in. (99.7 × 160.7 cm) Credit Line: New-York Historical Society, Gift of The New-York Gallery of the Fine Arts.
Mar 29, 2022 · The Consummation of Empire is one of a sequence of five paintings entitled The Course of Empire commissioned by Cole's patron Luman Reed, created between 1833 and 1836. Each painting in the series depicts the same landscape at a different stage of the rise and fall of an imaginary civilization.
