Archive for posts tagged with ‘Savage State’


Mar 22 2011

The Course of Empire, The Savage State, Thomas Cole

American / Landscape / Neoclassical / Paintings (Reproductions) - 1 year ago - troycapc

The Course of Empire, The Savage State, 1834, Thomas Cole

This is a reproduction of the first of Thomas Cole’s five part series, “The Course of Empire”.  This first painting, “The Savage State” depicts a landscape devoid of the structures of civilization.  Cole was reflecting the popular American belief that pastoralism, the agriculturally based state, was preferable to the imperial states of Europe and Asia.  The setting is an imaginary geography identifiable in each painting by a small mountain topped with an iconic boulder.  In this first scene there is a barbaric encampment at the extreme right of the viewer.  The original canvas is 160 cm wide and 100 cm high and is in the New York Historical Society.

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