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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

The Course of Empire: Destruction

Thomas Cole. Oil on canvas, 1836, 39 ½ x 63 ½ in. Collection of The New-York Historical Society, 1858.4.

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The Course of Empire

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John Martin, Pandemonium, mezzotint, 1825, 10 1/10 x 14 2/5 in. Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, The Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts. View in Scrapbook

The English artist John Martin created mezzotint illustrations for John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (1667). Martin's Pandemonium was the basis for Robert Burfurd's painting of the same name, which Cole saw in London in 1829. Cole's Destruction shows similar compositional elements, such as the grand architectural scheme, the large figure in the corner, and the swirling clouds. ¹