"Thomas Cole (1801-1848) is celebrated as the greatest American landscape artist of his generation. Though previous scholarship has emphasized the American aspects of his identity, never before has the British-born artist been presented as an international figure, in direct dialogue with the major landscape painters of the age. Thomas Cole's Journey emphasizes the artist's travels in England and Italy from 1829 to 1832 and his crucial interactions with such painters as Turner and Constable. Presenting the artist's most renowned paintings--The Oxbow (1836) and The Course of Empire cycle (1834-36)--as the culmination of his European experiences and of his abiding passion for the American wilderness, this lavishly illustrated catalogue provides a new perspective on these cherished masterpieces. Four essays examine how Cole's first-hand knowledge of the British industrial revolution and his study of the Roman Empire positioned him to create works that offer a distinctive, even dissident, response to the economic and political rise of the United States, the ecological and economic changes then underway, and the dangers that faced the young nation"--Publisher's description.