Sketch for Desolation, the Course of Empire, ca. 1833

  • Thomas Cole, American, 1801-1848

Graphite pencil on off-white wove paper

  • Image: 6 1/2 × 10 3/4 inches (16.5 × 27.3 cm) Sheet (irreg.): 10 3/8 × 16 3/4 inches (26.4 × 42.5 cm)

Founders Society Purchase, William H. Murphy Fund

39.379

Inscribed, bottom right: [illegible]

1939-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Aresin, Maria. Weltbilder und Zeitbilder: Die vier Weltzeitalter in der Malerei und in der Graphik 1497-1836. Berlin, 2021, p. 351 (abb. 176, ill.).

Thomas Cole, Sketch for Desolation, the Course of Empire, ca. 1833, graphite pencil on off-white wove paper. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, William H. Murphy Fund, 39.379.