The Course of Empire: Destruction (1836), Thomas Cole
Rank: 32
A founding father of the Hudson River School, English-born Thomas Cole is best known for his depictions of the American wilderness. Reflecting Americans’ concerns of the period that empire would inevitably lead to dissolution, Cole’s “Empire” series of five paintings charts the rise and fall of an imaginary civilization. In this, the fourth work in the cycle, a city burns and a bridge collapses under the weight of battling armies.—Anne Doran
Photograph: Courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Rogers Fund; 1956
