{"secondaryobjectnumber":null,"periodterms":[],"creditline":"Gift of Frank Jewett Mather Jr.","caption":"Thomas Cole (1801–1848; born Lancashire, England; died Catskill, NY), The Course of Empire–The Savage State, ca. 1834. Oil on paper laid down on canvas; 16 x 26 cm, 29.5 × 39.5 × 4.7 cm (frame). Gift of Frank Jewett Mather Jr. (y1941-51)","cultureterms":[{"id":2038492,"culture":"American"}],"type":"artobject","dimensionsproposed":"","terms":[{"id":2096851,"term":"Nature","aatid":300179372,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2053145,"term":"oil paintings","aatid":300033799,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2038492,"term":"American","aatid":300107956,"termtype":"Culture"},{"id":2055517,"term":"sketches","aatid":300015617,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2056046,"term":"light pink","aatid":300126055,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2055657,"term":"figures (representations)","aatid":300189808,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2057221,"term":"brown","aatid":300127490,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2119819,"term":"seas","aatid":300008694,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2058601,"term":"green (color)","aatid":300128438,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2059407,"term":"blue","aatid":300129361,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2061162,"term":"gray (color)","aatid":300130811,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2171706,"term":"clouds","aatid":null,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2120146,"term":"mountains","aatid":300008795,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2120474,"term":"trees","aatid":300132410,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2052977,"term":"paintings","aatid":300033618,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2055694,"term":"landscapes (representations)","aatid":300015636,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2120575,"term":"wilderness","aatid":300132449,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2171344,"term":"canvas","aatid":null,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2043813,"term":"paper (fiber product)","aatid":300014109,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2167780,"term":"oil paint","aatid":300015050,"termtype":"Materials"}],"geography":[{"displaygeography":"Place made: North America, United States, New York, Catskill Mountains","code":"Place made","continent":"North America","subcontinent":null,"country":"United States","region":"Catskill Mountains","state":"New York","city":null,"county":null,"subregion":null,"locale":null,"locus":null,"river":null,"excavation":null,"geoname":"http://www.geonames.org/maps/google_42.25_-74.25.html","location":{"lat":"","lon":""}}],"dimensionelements":[{"element":"frame","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"29.50"},{"element":"frame","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"39.50"},{"element":"frame","type":"Depth","units":"centimeters","dimension":"4.70"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"16.00"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"26.00"}],"markings":"Inscribed on stretcher, in pencil: Study for first picture in Course of Empire Savage State; Inscribed on back of canvas: Thomas Cole\r\nInscribed on pine board backing, in pencil: Thomas Cole / Sketch for picture Course of Empire / Savage State.\r\nFrom accession card.","accessionyear":"1941-01-01","newaccession":0,"makers":[{"id":6590,"displayname":"Thomas Cole","displaydate":"1801–1848; born Lancashire, England; died Catskill, NY","datebegin":1801,"dateend":1848,"prefix":null,"suffix":null,"role":"Artist","displaymaker":"Thomas Cole, 1801–1848; born Lancashire, England; died Catskill, NY","displayorder":1}],"datecomputed":1834,"signed":null,"restrictions":null,"classification":"Paintings","packages":[{"packageid":278831,"name":"10282025-DAY1-ONVIEW"},{"packageid":213904,"name":"Gallery_23-27(Pavilion7)-American"},{"packageid":203268,"name":"web_ObjectLessons_X_Other"},{"packageid":197269,"name":"web_highlights -revised 2021"},{"packageid":222433,"name":"2022_ECS405_11_07"},{"packageid":207234,"name":"SAB_Gala2021"},{"packageid":204016,"name":"x-COMPLETE-image_descriptions_American_Art_paintings"}],"catalograisonne":null,"classifications":[{"id":2052977,"classification":"paintings"},{"id":2055517,"classification":"sketches"},{"id":2053145,"classification":"oil paintings"}],"exhibitions":[],"cultures":[],"primaryimage":["https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/PUAMSTU2016_38839"],"displaytitle":"The Course of Empire–The Savage State","displayculture":null,"displaymaker":"Thomas Cole, 1801–1848; born Lancashire, England; died Catskill, NY","captionhtml":"Thomas Cole (1801–1848; born Lancashire, England; died Catskill, NY), The Course of Empire–The Savage State, ca. 1834. Oil on paper laid down on canvas; 16 x 26 cm, 29.5 × 39.5 × 4.7 cm (frame). Gift of Frank Jewett Mather Jr. (y1941-51)","displaydate":"ca. 1834","medium":"Oil on paper laid down on canvas","media":[{"id":202948,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/PUAMSTU2016_38839","isprimary":1,"rank":1,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"PUAM photo"},{"id":202959,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/PUAMSTU2016_38841","isprimary":0,"rank":2,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"PUAM photo"}],"displayperiod":null,"extended_content":false,"campuscollections":"false","bibliography":[{"boilertext":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013)","citation":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 238","date":2013,"id":1994,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/865020505"},{"boilertext":"John Wilmerding et al., American Art in the Princeton University Art Museum: volume 1: drawings and watercolors, (Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum; New Haven, CT; London: Yale University Press, 2004)","citation":"John Wilmerding et al., American Art in the Princeton University Art Museum: volume 1: drawings and watercolors, (Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum; New Haven, CT; London: Yale University Press, 2004), p. 26, fig. 26","date":2004,"id":420,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/57236887"},{"boilertext":"Barbara T. Ross, \"The Mather years 1922-1946,\" in \"An art museum for Princeton: the early years\", special issue, Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 55, no. 1/2 (1996): p. 53–76.","citation":"Barbara T. Ross, \"The Mather years 1922-1946,\" in \"An art museum for Princeton: the early years\", special issue, Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 55, no. 1/2 (1996): p. 53–76., p. 70, fig. 24","date":1996,"id":3053,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/3774780"},{"boilertext":"F. J. Mather, \"American paintings at Princeton University,\" Record of the Museum of Historic Art, Princeton University 2, no. 2 (1943): p. 2-15.","citation":"F. J. Mather, \"American paintings at Princeton University,\" Record of the Museum of Historic Art, Princeton University 2, no. 2 (1943): p. 2-15., p. 8; fig. 10","date":1943,"id":3193,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/3774197"},{"boilertext":"\"Recent accessions\", Record of the Museum of Historic Art, Princeton University 1, no. 1 (1942): p. 19.","citation":"\"Recent accessions\", Record of the Museum of Historic Art, Princeton University 1, no. 1 (1942): p. 19., p. 19","date":1942,"id":3200,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/3774184"},{"boilertext":"Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986)","citation":"Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 272","date":1986,"id":1899,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/14244748"},{"boilertext":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007)","citation":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 227 (illus.)","date":2007,"id":474,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/191864564"}],"nowebuse":"False","periods":[],"department":"American Art","attribute_groups":[{"id":2199325,"term":"North American Art","termtype":"Collecting Area"},{"id":2199327,"term":"Prints and Drawings","termtype":"Collecting Area"}],"daterange":"A.D. 1800-1850","dateend":1839,"depicted":[],"titles":[{"title":"The Course of Empire–The Savage State","titletype":"Primary Title","displayorder":1}],"hasimage":"true","creditlinerepro":"","objectnumber":"y1941-51","inscribed":null,"texts":[{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Handbook Entry","textentryhtml":"\r\nPurchased from the artist’s granddaughter at his studio in Catskill, New York, this is Thomas Cole’s second oil sketch for the initial painting of his renowned five-part cycle, The Course of Empire. In a letter from the artist to Luman Reed, his patron for the series, Cole described his vision: \"The FIRST PICTURE, representing the savage state, must be a view of a wilderness — the sun rising from the sea, and the clouds of night retiring over the mountains. The figures must be savage, clothed in skins, and occupied in the chase. There must be a flashing chiaroscuro, and the spirit of motion pervading the scene, as though nature were just springing from Chaos.\" Meant to evoke civilization’s inchoate beginnings, The Savage State was followed by four images of the same imagined locality as it developed into a magnificent city, only to be destroyed and returned to wilderness, providing a sublime, if defeatist, allegory of history, progress, and the nation state. ","remarks":null},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Gallery Label","textentryhtml":"The earliest American landscape painting at the Princeton University Art Museum is an unassuming but significant work of art. Completed in about 1834, this sketch is the only known oil study for the initial painting in Cole’s monumental five-part cycle The Course of Empire. In a letter from the artist to his patron Luman Reed, Cole described his vision: “The FIRST PICTURE . . . must be a view of a wilderness— the sun rising from the sea, and the clouds of night retiring over the mountains. There must be a flashing chiaroscuro, and the spirit of motion pervading the scene, as though nature were just springing from Chaos.” Meant to evoke civilization’s inchoate beginnings, The Savage State was followed by four images of the same imagined locality as it developed into a magnificent city, only to be destroyed and returned to wilderness, providing a sublime, if defeatist, alle-gory of history, progress, and the nation-state.\n","remarks":"AMER2_23-27_WLA Day 1 Cataloguing"},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Provenance","textentryhtml":"Florence H. Cole Vincent (1876-1961), granddaughter of the artist, by 1941; purchased by Frank Jewett Mather, Jr. (1868-1953), by 1941; donated to the Princeton University Art Museum, 1941.","remarks":null}],"datebegin":1829,"sortnumber":"1941 51y","published_date":"2026-02-11 09:38:50.107537","objectid":21730,"dimensions":"16 x 26 cm. (6 5/16 x 10 1/4 in.)\r\nframe: 29.5 × 39.5 × 4.7 cm (11 5/8 × 15 9/16 × 1 7/8 in.)","on_view":true}