The Course of Empire (paintings)

The Course of Empire is a series of five paintings created by the English-born American painter Thomas Cole between 1833 and 1836, and now in the collection of the New York Historical. The series depicts the growth and fall of an imaginary city, situated on the lower end of a river valley, near its meeting with a bay of the sea. The valley is identifiable in each of the paintings, in part because of a distinct landmark: a large boulder is situated atop a crag overlooking the valley. Some critics believe this is meant to contrast the immutability of the earth with the transience of man.
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 Cole returned to frequently, such as in his The Voyage of Life series. The Course of Empire comprises the following works: The Course of Empire – The Savage State; The Arcadian or Pastoral State; The Consummation of Empire; Destruction; and Desolation.
All the paintings are oil on canvas, and all are 39.5 inches by 63.5 inches (100 cm by 161 cm) except The Consummation of Empire which is 51″ by 76″ (130 cm by 193 cm).
Though not based on any specific city, the architecture, sculpture and costumes are clearly in the styles of Greco-Roman classical civilization, and the historical arch traced in the series can be loosely compared to the History of Rome. Revived styles of classical architecture had become the standard for most major public buildings in the United States, especially Washington DC, enabling the series to be read as a forecast or warning for American civilization.
A direct source of literary inspiration for The Course of Empire paintings is Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–18). Cole quoted lines from Canto IV in his newspaper advertisements for the series:
A quote by Bishop Berkeley also can be used to describe the series:
Cole designed these paintings to be displayed prominently in the picture gallery on the third floor of the mansion of his patron, Luman Reed, at 13 Greenwich Street, New York City. The layout was approximately as shown here, according to Cole's installation diagram (adopted to the fireplace). The series was acquired by The New-York Historical Society in 1858 as a gift of the New-York Gallery of Fine Arts and remains in their collection today.
The first painting, The Savage State, shows the valley from the shore opposite the crag, in the dim light of a dawning stormy day. Clouds and mist shroud much of the distant landscape, hinting at the uncertain future. A hunter clad in skins hastens through the wilderness, pursuing a fleeing deer; canoes paddle up the river; on the far shore can be seen a clearing with a cluster of tipis around a fire, the nucleus of the city that is to be. The visual references are those of Native American life. This painting depicts the ideal state of the natural world. It is a healthy world, unchanged by humanity.
In the second painting, The Arcadian or Pastoral State, the sky has cleared and it is the fresh morning of a day in spring or summer. The viewpoint has shifted further up the river, as the crag with the boulder is now on the left-hand side of the painting; a forked peak can be seen in the distance beyond it. Much of the wilderness has given way to cultivated land and agriculture, with plowed fields and lawns visible. Various activities go on in the background: plowing, boatbuilding, herding sheep, dancing; in the foreground, an old man sketches what may be a geometrical problem with a stick. On a bluff on the near side of the river, a megalithic temple has been built, and smoke (presumably from sacrifices) arises from it. Below the temple, an emerging village is taking shape along the riverbed. The images reflect an idealized, pre-urban Archaic Greece. This work shows humanity at peace with the land. The environment has been altered, but not so much so that it or its inhabitants are in danger. Yet the construction of the warship and the concerned mother watching as her child sketches a soldier, herald the emerging imperial ambitions. Furthermore, a tree stump is seen in the right foreground, a reflection of the dark nature of man already developed, and a foreshadow to the fate of the growing settlement.
The third painting, The Consummation of Empire, shifts the viewpoint to the opposite shore, approximately the site of the clearing in the first painting. Both sides of the river valley are now covered in colonnaded marble structures, whose steps run down into the water. The megalithic temple seems to have been transformed into a huge domed structure dominating the river-bank. The mouth of the river is guarded by two pharoi, and ships with lateen sails go out to the sea beyond. A joyous crowd gathers on the balconies and terraces as a scarlet-robed king or victorious general crosses a bridge connecting the two sides of the river in a triumphant procession. Guarding him are soldiers of various skin tones, a suggestion to the expanse this empire has seen. In the foreground, lower right, there is what seems to be a royal court. Amongst them, under the elaborate fountain, are two boys clad in red and green, with one sinking a toy boat, while another seemingly pleading with him. The adults nearby are inattentive of the discordant behavior, busy in their affairs. Further to the right, amongst the individuals fixed on the procession, a queenly woman sits atop a gilded throne. The look of the painting suggests the height of Ancient Rome. The decadence seen in every detail of this cityscape foreshadows the inevitable fall of this mighty civilization.
The fourth painting, Destruction, has almost the same perspective as the third, though the artist has stepped back a bit to allow a wider scene of the action, and moved almost to the center of the river. The action is the sack and destruction of the city, in the course of a tempest seen in the distance. It seems that a fleet of enemy warriors has overthrown the city's defenses, sailed up the river, and is busy ransacking the city, killing its inhabitants, and seizing women: presumably to rape them. The bridge across which the triumphant procession had crossed is broken; a makeshift crossing strains under the weight of soldiers and refugees. Columns are broken, and fire breaks from the upper floors of a palace on the river bank.
In the foreground a statue of some venerable hero (posed like the Borghese Gladiator) stands headless, still striding forward into the uncertain future. In the waning light of late afternoon, the dead lie where they fell, in fountains and atop the monuments built to celebrate the affluence of the now fallen civilization. The scene is perhaps suggested by the Vandal sack of Rome in 455.
On the other hand, internal strife and civil war seem also implicated. A catapult positioned on the left bank faces the structural damage on the right bank, exemplified by the contrasting states of the pharoi and suggestive of a prolonged split in the city. The most interesting, however, seem the two men in the fountain at the bottom right: the one in green is resting wearily atop the other, seemingly in contemplation of the heavy price paid, as the other in red lies dead in the water. Allusive of the two boys near the fountain in the previous painting of the series, similarly clad in red and green, the discord may have foreshadowed a civil war. We can see the same colors in the red and green banners on different sides of the river; the green banners mostly on the temple side and the red banners predominantly on the palace side. This may also show the still ongoing war between traditionalism and modernism.
The fifth painting, Desolation, shows the results decades later. The remains of the city are highlighted in the livid light of a dying day. The landscape has begun to return to wilderness and no humans are to be seen; but the remnants of their architecture emerge from beneath a mantle of trees, ivy, and other overgrowth. The broken stumps of the pharoi loom in the background. The arches of the shattered bridge and the columns of the temple are still visible; a single column looms in the foreground, now a nesting place for birds. The sunrise of the first painting is mirrored here by a moonrise, a pale light reflecting in the ruin-choked river while the standing pillar reflects the last rays of sunset. This gloomy picture suggests how all empires could be after their fall. It is a harsh possible future in which humanity has been destroyed by its own hand.
This cycle reflects Cole's pessimism, and is often seen as a commentary on Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party. (Note, for instance, the military hero at the center of "Consummation".) However, some Democrats had a different theory of the course of empire. They saw not a spiral or cycle but a continuing upward trajectory. Levi Woodbury, a Democrat and a justice of the United States Supreme Court, for instance, responded to Cole by saying that there would be no destruction in the United States.