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The Course of Empire: Thomas Cole and the Hudson River School Landscape Tradition, featuring selections from the New-York Historical Society, opens at the New York State Museum on August 23rd.

This exhibition, in the museum's West Gallery through November 30th, showcases the depth and richness of the New-York Historical Society's collection of paintings and works on paper by renowned artists of the Hudson River School of landscape painting. The Hudson River School was a loosely knit group of artists living and working in New York during the middle decades of the 19th century. The rise of landscape painting as the preeminent American art form during this time emerged from a growing taste for the beauty and grandeur of nature when the nation was rapidly transforming itself into an industrial empire.

Thomas Cole, long considered the founder of the Hudson River School and the father of 19th century American landscape painting, takes center stage in this exhibition with his seminal five-painting series, The Course of Empire. Commissioned in 1833 by the pioneering American art collector, Luman Reed, the series was a culminating achievement in the artist's career, embodying ideas and approaches to landscape that profoundly influenced scores of other Hudson River School artists, many of whom are featured in the exhibition.

The exhibition, sponsored by the New York State Museum Institute and HSBC, features 40 paintings and 11 works on paper, including engravings and lithographs. Artists represented include several of Cole's devoted followers and friends, most notably Frederick Edwin Church, Asher Brown Durand, Jasper Francis Cropsey, John Frederick Kensett, and Martin Johnson Heade.

The museum is planning several fall programs in conjunction with The Course of Empire exhibition. On Saturday, September 20th a discussion on the works in the exhibition will be led by the curator, Lee Vedder, a Luce curatorial fellow at the New-York Historical Society. This will be preceded by a lecture and slide show on the Hudson River School at 1 p.m.

Tours of the homes of Thomas Cole and Frederic Church are planned for Saturday, October 5th. The trip, which will leave the State Museum at 8:30 a.m., will take participants to Cedar Grove in the northern Catskills, a National Register historic site, where Cole established the foundation of the Hudson River School. The tour will
then go to Olana, the home of Church, who studied with Cole. The trip is $60, including lunch in Hudson.
Reservations are required by October 4th and can be made by calling Travels thru History at (518) 372-0777 or by writing to tcolarco@nycap.rr.com.

Free teachers' workshops on the exhibition are planned for September and October. They are for teachers of art, social studies or language arts, and include an exclusive tour of Course of Empire, a hands-on activity and an education resource guide. For reservations or education resource materials contact Nancy Kelley at nkelley@mail.nysed.gov or (518) 474-0080.

The Course of Empire exhibition, the first in a new partnership between New-York Historical and the State Museum, inaugurates a series of exchanges between the two cultural institutions. The works in this exhibition were selected from New-York Historical's Hudson River School collection, which is among the most extensive in the world.

From Nov. 25, 2003 to March 21, 2004, New-York Historical will host a traveling exhibition, organized by the State Museum. Recovery: The World Trade Center Recovery Operation at Fresh Kills documents the historic recovery effort to locate human remains and personal objects from the collapse of the World Trade Center.

The New York State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. Further information about programs and events can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.