{"id":303,"date":"2012-02-25T22:45:30","date_gmt":"2012-02-26T03:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondthenotes.org\/blog\/?p=303"},"modified":"2012-02-25T22:57:21","modified_gmt":"2012-02-26T03:57:21","slug":"the-course-of-empire-narrative-and-context","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondthenotes.org\/blog\/the-course-of-empire-narrative-and-context\/","title":{"rendered":"The Course of Empire: Narrative and Context [VIDEO]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Guide:\u00a0Thomas Cole’s “The Course of Empire”<\/a><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Scroll below to explore the larger contexts behind Cole’s artistry and the story in\u00a0The Course of Empire<\/em>, then\u00a0examine each of the five paintings in detail.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Landscape<\/h3>\n

Thomas Cole is considered one of the first great American landscape painters, and these five paintings are a virtuosic display. His work was strongly influenced by the Romantic ideal of the Sublime wilderness, as well as older European painters such as Claude Lorraine and Nicolas Poussin.<\/p>\n

Landscape and its artistic representation was important for America’s national identity in the 19th century, and the fate of the wilderness had spiritual and political resonance for Cole and like-minded artists and intellectuals.<\/p>\n