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----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Hello Professor Ryan and ARLIS-L: You may be thinking of a series titled The Course of Empire painted by Thomas Cole in 1836. The four paintings are titled: The Savage State, The Arcadian or Pastoral State, The Consummation of Empire, and Desolation. Consummation of Empire and Desolation are pictured (unfortunately in B&W) in Barbara Novak's _American Painting of the Nineteenth Century_, 2nd ed., 1979. They are listed as belonging to the New York Historical Society in New York City. You might wish to contact the Historical Society. Thomas Cole was an American, one of the so-called Hudson River School of 19th century painters, but he did travel to Italy and was influenced by the Italian painter Claude Lorrain in his landscape painting style. Cole's work reflects his belief that the hurtling rush of progress in 19th century America was destroying the ideal and the ideology that had founded America, as had occurred with other previous empires. Sandra C. Walker, Visual Resources Specialist Department of Art, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville [log in to unmask] On Wed, 22 Sep 1999, Patrick Ryan wrote: >----------------------------Original message---------------------------- >Hello, > I'm a professor of American history, and I thought someone on the list migh >be able to help me locate a set of four paintings which depict the classical >republican stages of history - that is the rise and fall from agrarian >simplicity to civic virtue to imperial corruption to social disintegration. I >believe this artist was an American, but he may have been a European patronized >by Americans in the early nineteenth century. Trouble for me is that I can not >seem to recall where I saw this set, or any details relating to their >production. I associated them immediately with the ideology of the American >revolution, because I'm an American historian, but it's possible that they were >produced during the Italian Renaissance. If I could have clues as to the >artists name, or of course the names of the paintings... I'd be grateful. > >Patrick Ryan >University of Texas at Dallas >