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  • Falls of the Kaaterskill
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  • The Clove, Catskills
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  • The Course of Empire: The Savage State
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  • The Course of Empire: The Arcadian or Pastoral State
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  • The Course of Empire: The Consummation of Empire
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  • The Course of Empire: Destruction
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  • The Course of Empire: Desolation
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  • View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, After A Thunderstorm (The Oxbow)
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  • View on the Catskill, Early Autumn
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  • The Voyage of Life: Childhood (First Set)
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  • The Voyage of Life: Youth (First Set)
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  • The Voyage of Life: Manhood (First Set)
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  • The Voyage of Life: Old Age (First Set)
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  • The Architect's Dream
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  • Mount Etna From Taormina, Sicily
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  • A View of the Two Lakes and Mountain House, Catskill Mountains, Morning
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  • Kindred Spirits

The Course of Empire: The Savage State

Thomas Cole. Oil on canvas, 1834, 39 ½ x 63 ½ in. Collection of The New-York Historical Society, 1858.1.

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The Course of Empire

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About

"The first picture, representing the savage state, must be a view of a wilderness,—the sun rising from the sea, and the clouds of night retiring over the mountains. The figures must be savage, clothed in skins and occupied in the chase. There must be a flashing chiaroscuro, and the spirit of motion pervading the scene, as though nature was just springing from chaos." 1 
thomas cole

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