Explore Thomas Cole

  • Interactive Tour
  • Virtual Gallery
  • Cole's Landscapes
  • Definitions
  • Scrapbook
  • Cole's Circle
  • Learn More

Icon_tour_sm Back to Tour Intro

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

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.

About the Series:

The Course of Empire

  • zoom & Pan
  • about
  • decode
  • compare
  • Cole's process
  • Cole's words
  • locate
The Course of Empire: The Savage State
NOTE: Because javascript is not enabled on this browser or Flash Player 9.28 or greater is not installed,
we are only able to show a simple preview image. Please install Flash from Adobe.com
and/or follow Google's online instructions to enable Javascript for your browser.

Words

... And to this state our western world is fast approaching; but nature is still predominant, and there are those who regret that with the improvements of cultivation the sublimity of the wilderness should pass away: for those scenes of solitude from which the hand of nature has never been lifted, affect the mind with a more deep toned emotion than aught which the hand of man has touched. Amid them the consequent associations are of God the creator—they are his undefiled works, and the mind is cast into the contemplation of eternal things. 1 
thomas cole

This site employs current web standards and accessibility best practices for CSS, XHTML, Flash, and JavaScript.
It performs best with Firefox 3.x and Apple Safari 3.x or greater, Opera 9.x and Adobe Flash Player 10 or greater.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Contributors
  • Share
  • © 2010