The Course of Empire
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| The five paintings of The Course of Empire | |
| Type | Painting series |
|---|---|
| Artist | Thomas Cole |
| Date | 1834–1836 |
| Paintings | Five |
| Collection | New-York Historical Society |
The Course of Empire is a series of five landscape paintings by Thomas Cole, made in 1834–1836 for the New York collector Luman Reed. The paintings follow a single imagined landscape through the rise, prosperity, destruction and disappearance of a civilization. Cole regarded the series as an example of a "higher style of landscape," combining landscape painting with history and moral allegory.[1]
Commission
In a letter to Reed, Cole proposed a series that would illustrate the history of a natural scene and of humanity, showing a people's progress from barbarism to civilization, luxury, destruction and finally ruin and desolation. Reed accepted the proposal, and Cole worked on the series for the next three years. The paintings were designed for a prominent place in the third-floor picture gallery of Reed's mansion at 13 Greenwich Street in New York City.[1]
Cole's trip to Europe from 1829 to 1832, where he first saw the ruins of ancient civilizations, deeply influenced the project. The series also reflected a growing interest in ancient history among American elites.[1]
The paintings
The sequence consists of The Savage State, The Arcadian or Pastoral State, The Consummation of Empire, Destruction and Desolation. As the civilization rises and falls, the paintings also move through different times of day and weather conditions, reflecting humanity's changing relationship with nature.[1]
Title and sources
The title comes from Bishop George Berkeley's poem "Verses on the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America" (1726), which describes five stages of civilization and implies that America would be the next great empire. Cole also cited lines from Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage on the cycle of freedom, glory, wealth, corruption and barbarism.[1]
Reception
The novelist James Fenimore Cooper wrote in 1849 that he considered the series "the work of the highest genius this country has ever produced."[1] The paintings are held by the New-York Historical Society.[1]