The Course of Empire

Portrait of Thomas Cole

1838

Oil on Canvas

Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA.

Okay folks, time for a history and art lesson.

These are the Course of Empire Paintings by Thomas Cole painted between 1835 to 1836. They are done just prior to the American Civil War. The series of paintings depicts the growth and fall of a city (thereby a civilization). The valley is distinctly identifiable in each of the paintings, in part because of an unusual landmark: A large boulder is situated atop a crag overlooking the valley. It is believed this is meant to contrast the immutability of the God and the His creation the Earth with the transience of man and empire. The series comprises the following works:

i. The Savage State
ii. The Arcadian or Pastoral State
iii. The Consummation of Empire
iv. Destruction
v. Desolation

Look closely at the 4th painting: Destruction. It is reflective of the United States in 2020. One would be wise to be cautious of the omens it portends. The beheaded statues. The burning buildings. The riots. This isn't just art. It is history. The five phases of empire. The rise and inexorable fall of empires. They all fall. The United States will be no different. It should alarm us all that we are in the latter stages of image 4. Destruction.

A direct source of literary inspiration for The Course of Empire paintings is Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–18). Cole quoted lines from Canto IV in his newspaper advertisements for the series:

"First Freedom, and then Glory – when that fails, wealth, vice, corruption..."

i. The Savage State

The first painting, The Savage State, shows the valley from the shore opposite the crag, in the dim light of a dawning stormy day. Clouds and mist shroud the distant landscape, hinting at the uncertain future. A hunter clad in skins hastens through the wilderness, pursuing a fleeing deer; canoes paddle up the river; on the far shore can be seen a clearing with a cluster of tipis around a fire, the nucleus of the city that is to be. This painting depicts the ideal state of the natural world. It is a healthy world, unchanged by humanity.

ii. The Arcadian or Pastoral State

In the second painting, The Arcadian or Pastoral State, the sky has cleared and we are in the fresh morning of a summer day. The viewpoint shifted further down the river, as the crag with the boulder is now on the left-hand side of the painting; a forked peak can be seen in the distance beyond it. Much of the wilderness has given way to settled, plowed fields visible. There is activity…plowing, boat-building, herding sheep, dancing; in the foreground, an old man sketches the ground with a stick. On a bluff a temple has been built and smoke presumably from sacrifices arises from it. Thereby culture, societal moral structure (law) is evident. The images reflect an idealized, pre-urban ancient city. There is a armed soldier in the foreground appearing out of the shrubs. In this work shows humanity at peace with the land. The environment has been altered, but not so much so that it or its inhabitants are in danger. Yet the construction of the warship and the concerned mother watching as her child sketches a soldier, herald the emerging imperialism.

iii. The Consummation of Empire

The third painting, The Consummation of Empire, shifts the viewpoint to the opposite shore, approximately the site of the clearing in the first painting. It is noon of a glorious summer day. Both sides of the river valley are now covered in colonnaded marble structures, whose steps run down into the water. The megalithic temple seems to have been transformed into a huge domed structure dominating the river-bank. The mouth of the river is guarded by two pharoi, and ships with lateen sails go out to the sea beyond. A joyous crowd gathers on the balconies and terraces as a scarlet-robed king or victorious general crosses a bridge connecting the two sides of the river in a triumphant procession. In the foreground, an elaborate fountain gushes forth water. The look of the painting suggests the height of civilization. The decadence seen in every detail of this cityscape foreshadows the inevitable fall of this mighty civilization.

iv. Destruction

The fourth painting, Destruction, has almost the same perspective as the third, though the artist has stepped back and moved almost to the center of the river. The action is the destruction of the city, in the course of a tempest seen in the distance. It seems that a fleet of enemy has overthrown the city's defenses, sailed up the river, and is busy ransacking the city and killing its inhabitants and raping women. The bridge across which the triumphant procession had crossed is broken; a makeshift crossing strains under the weight of soldiers and refugees. Columns are broken, and fire breaks from the upper floors of a palace on the river bank. In the foreground a statue of some venerable hero (posed as a Borghese Gladiator) stands headless, still striding forward into the doomed future. In the waning light of late afternoon, the dead lie where they fell, in fountains and atop the monuments built to celebrate the affluence of the now falling civilization. The scene is perhaps suggested by the Vandal sack of Rome in 455. Vandals from which we get the word vandalism. Ironically, in the lower right of "The Consummation of Empire" shows two children, perhaps brothers, fighting, they are different colors—the banners of the two contending forces in "Destruction," likely depict an internal war…a civil war. The children, now men, are shown, with one having finally prevailed over the other but seemingly in contemplation of the heavy price paid. Death, destruction and the fall of empire.

v. Desolation

The fifth painting, Desolation, shows the results decades later. We view the remains of the city in the livid light of a dying day. The landscape has begun to return to wilderness and no humans are to be seen; but the remnants of their architecture emerge from beneath a mantle of trees, ivy, and other overgrowth. The broken stumps of the pharoi loom in the background. The arches of the shattered bridge and the columns of the temple are still visible; a single column looms in the foreground, now a nesting place for birds. The sunrise of the first painting is mirrored here by a moonrise, a pale light reflecting in the ruin-choked river while the standing pillar reflects the last rays of sunset. This gloomy picture suggests how all empires fall. It is the constant harsh future in which humanity has been destroyed by its own hand.