Explore Thomas Cole

Process

Cole began sketching ideas for The Course of Empire as early as 1829 and ruminated on the series throughout his first trip abroad. In 1832, he sent A Wild Scene to Robert Gilmor, Jr., of Baltimore, describing it as "a large picture representing a romantic country, or perfect state of nature, with appropriate savage figures. It is a scene of no particular land, but a general idea of a wild." ¹ 

A Wild Scene became the basis for The Savage State, with its similar mountain peak, storm clouds, primitive hunters, and fleeing deer. ²  But the art historian Ellwood C. Parry points out that in the Study for the Savage State, Cole shifted the large framing tree from right to left and reversed the orientation of the figure on the far left toward the center of the composition. These changes take into account the intended placement of the work in relation to the other paintings in the series, as they direct the viewer's attention to the hub of the interrelated compositions. ³ 

Works

1. Thomas Cole, <cite>A Wild Scene</cite>, oil on canvas, 1831-32, 50 &frac12; x 76 in. Baltimore Museum of Art. Leonce Rabillion Bequest Fund, by exchange, and Purchase Fund. View in Virtual Gallery

2. Thomas Cole, <cite>Study for the Savage State</cite>, oil on canvas, c. 1834, 7 3/8 x 10 &frac14; in. The Art Museum, Princeton University, Frank Jewett Mather, Jr. Collection. View in Virtual Gallery

3. Thomas Cole, <cite>The Course of Empire: The Savage State</cite>, oil on canvas, 1834, 39 &frac12 x 63 &frac12 in. Collection of The New-York Historical Society, 1858.1.