In this first of a two-part lecture series, RTF director Matt Ehret delivers a presentation on Thomas Cole’s Course of Empire and broader political struggles over the soul of the early republic and humanity more broadly during the 19th century.

You will be introduced to the aesthetical movement of painting that aspired to achieve the transformative power of art outlined by the great Friedrich Schiller which demanded both a rigorous commitment to Truth while at the same time ensuring creative freedom and non-literalism. This new school which aspired to unite the arts and sciences in a higher synthesis was led after Schiller’s death in the young American republic by Alexander von Humboldt, James Fenimore Cooper, Samuel B Morse and a group of artists that came to be known as the Hudson River School led by a figure named Thomas Cole.

Matt’s previous lectures on painting and the early battles over the soul of America can be found here: How Classical Painting Liberates us from the Shackles of the Senses https://risingtidefoundation.net/2022…

Cultural Warfare and the American Revolution (Franklin, West and Morse Revisited) https://risingtidefoundation.net/2022…

To know more about Pierre Beaudry’s work on the Hudson River School, see the following: https://www.amatterofmind.us/classica…