Shop art print and framed art The Course of Empire: Destruction by Thomas Cole

The Course of Empire, also known as The Fate of Empires, is a series of five pictures painted between 1833 and 1836 by Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School. It is remarkable in part because it reflects the popular American sentiments of the time, when many saw pastoralism as the ideal phase of human civilisation, fearing that empire would lead to gluttony and inevitable decadence, the "common fate of nations". The theme of cycles is one that Cole returned to frequently, as in his Journey of Life series. The Course of the Empire includes the following works: The Course of the Empire - The Savage State"; The Arcadian or Pastoral State; The Consumption of the Empire; Destruction and Desolation. They are all oil paintings on canvas and measure 100 × 161 cm, except for The Apogee (The Consumption of the Empire), which measures 130 × 193 cm;" Thomas Cole's inspiration for this work came mainly from a three-year journey through Europe, during which he saw countless paintings by other Romantics in museums, as well as cultivated artistic exchanges and visited Roman ruins in Italy. In particular, this evidence of past cultures fascinated him and influenced his later work, notably The Course of Empire, in the sense that he wanted to show that any empire, however powerful, will one day collapse. At the same time, the cycle illustrates Cole's fear of America's growing obsession with progress at the expense of nature, and reflects the religious, artistic, scientific and [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the classical period. It belongs to the romanticism style.

 

« The Course of Empire: Destruction » is kept at New-York Historical Society Collection, New York, USA.

 

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