Architects Dream
Architects Dream c1840 by American Artist Thomas Cole (1801 – 1848); specializing in historical and landscape paintings that portrayed the American wilderness and was part of the Hudson River School Movement.
This is a beautiful eye catching image of an architect reclining amongst large books on a stone block that sits aloft a beautifully sculpted column; and our perspective of this is a view through a large window with columns adorned in lime green red pattern drapes.
He is daydreaming of the accomplishments of mans architectural achievements, from the days of the glorious empires of the Egyptians and the Romans to that of the beautiful European Cathedrals the current modern times of the 1800s in which he lives.
In the image we see a large waterway that opens in the ocean filled with ships and to the far right of the artwork, we can see several Egyptian temples with a massive Pyramid towering above them.
Then the scene transitions to that of Roman architecture with a much smaller temple with columns, a building with a large dome and a large state building with sculpted accents; and above that an aqueduct that runs the entire length with a gardens.
On the left of the image we then see the accomplishments of the modern era of the time which is represented by a large European Cathedral, accented with many trees.
Architects Dream is a retouched digital art old masters reproduction of a public domain image.
Info Below Derived From Wikipedia.org
Thomas was born in Bolton le Moors, Lancashire England in 1801 and at 17 years of age emigrated to the United States with his family, settling in Steubenville, Ohio in 1818.
In 1823 he left Ohio and moved to Philadelphia and then from there in 1825 moved to Catskill, New York, where he lived for the next 23 years with his wife and children.
Thomas started his career as an engraver and was almost completely self taught as a painter, using books to learn his craft and also studying the works of other artists.
Then in 1822 Thomas began working as a portrait painter and over time shifted his focus from portraiture to landscape and historical painting.
Thomas is considered to be one of the prominent 19th century American painters and the founder of the Hudson River School movement which was influenced by the Romanticism era of the late 18th century and mid 19th century.
Though Cole was primarily a landscape painter, he also produced allegorical artwork; with the his most famous being the five part series The Course of Empire; which depict the same landscape over generations, from a near state of nature to consummation of empire, and then decline and desolation.