The Course of Empire Destruction

Romanticism

The story

The Course of Empire: Destruction by Thomas Cole, 1836. Fourth painting in a five part series. The empire burning here is not Rome. Not Greece. Cole invented it. He borrowed from all of them on purpose so you could see every empire in it. Yours included. That was the whole point. He painted this when America was barely 60 years old, already asking the question nobody wanted to hear.

Movement
Romanticism
Artist
Thomas Cole

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