Sustaining Our Empire: Thomas Cole and ‘The Course of Empire’

Sustaining Our Empire: Thomas Cole and ‘The Course of Empire’
“The Course of Empire: Destruction,” 1836, by Thomas Cole. Oil on canvas, 39 1/4 inches by 63 1/2 inches. New-York Historical Society. Public Domain
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Thomas Cole was a 19th-century American painter who became popular for his landscape paintings. Born in England, Cole moved to the United States at a young age, and America is where his love of art developed.
As a young man, Cole fell in love with the beautiful wilderness of New York’s Catskill Mountains, where he would later establish a studio. The Catskills would serve as inspiration for many of his paintings. 
Eric Bess
Eric Bess
Author
Eric Bess, Ph.D., is a fine artist, a writer on art-related topics, and an assistant professor at Fei Tian College in Middletown, New York.
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