Soon Thomas Cole's most extraordinary work, the five-canvas series known as "The Course of Empire," 1833-36, will arrive in London as the crown jewel of an ambitious show at Tate Britain, "American Sublime: Landscape Painting in the United States, 1820-1880." On loan from the New York Historical Society.
IN 1829 THOMAS COLE COMPLAINED THAT HIS paintings were skied in the hanging at the Royal Academy and British Gallery in London. "On the varnishing day," he wrote, "I found them in the most ...