Thomas Cole’s The Past

A cheerful summers day viewed from the trees on high, looking down upon a castle yard where a crowd watches a joust

Thomas Cole, The Past, 1838, oil on canvas,53 ⅜ in x 74 ⅜ in, Mead Art Museum.

About the Artist

Thomas Cole was born in England in 1801 and emigrated to America in 1818, moving from industrial Lancashire to rural Ohio. Largely self-taught, he became known for American landscape paintings that explored the tension between nature and encroaching industrialization, often using weather and seasons as metaphors for human emotion. After studying art in Pennsylvania and moving to New York, Cole became a leading figure of the Hudson River School. From 1829 to 1832, he traveled throughout England and Italy, inspiring his famous series The Course of Empire, which depicted the rise and fall of civilizations.1 Throughout his career, Cole created allegorical works reflecting his concerns about human impact on nature, including pairs like The Departure and The Return (1837) and The Past and The Present (1838), the latter now housed at Amherst College’s Mead Art Museum. These works often explored themes of time, change, and the decline of empires with an emphasis on nature and landscapes.2

About the Work: “The Past”

Thomas Cole’s The Past is a large oil painting (40 ½ inches by 60 ½ inches, encased in an intricate gold, gilded frame size 53 ⅜ inches by 74 ⅜ inches by 6 inches) depicting a lively medieval jousting tournament on a bright summer day. The viewer is oriented to view this work from above, with the scene centered on a grand castle with a round tower, colorful flags, and stained glass, surrounded by crowds of people in pastel attire, knights, and tournament officials. The landscape features lush green trees, distant castles, a winding path, a bridge, and a waterfall. Spectators have filled the stands and even perch in tree branches while the sun highlights the jousters at the painting’s focal point, creating a vibrant, detailed celebration of medieval life.

Several aspects of the scenery depicted in this work tell a deeper story about how this painting is connected to its pair, The Present. Although Cole never revealed an explicit reason for the decline shown from The Past to The Present, his writings about the human impact on nature, as well as analyzing key details about the weather from The Past, can offer insight into this issue.3 

About the Weather

The Sky 

Zooming in on different parts of the work allows the viewer to appreciate the key weather elements that echo Cole’s broader ideologies. The sky is bright and clear, reinforcing the sense of prosperity, celebration, and civilization at its peak. This artistic choice aligns with Cole’s philosophy from his Essay on American Scenery, stating that the sky is “the soul of all scenery” and profoundly impacts the mood and meaning of the landscape.4 The clear, pale blue sky serves to amplify the optimism and liveliness of the scene in this work, contrasting with the ruinous, gloomy atmosphere of its other half, The Present. Furthermore, the flag atop the main tower on the castle is shown flowing towards the right in the gentle summer breeze. When the set of paintings are shown side by side, this flag appears to be blowing in the direction of the future painting, The Present, maybe indicating that this gentle breeze is turning into a disastrous future storm.

This image is zoomed into the top of the castle, showing a pink flag blowing in the wind.

The Waterfall

In this zoomed-in snippet from the far right side of the painting, a strong current of water can be seen flowing down the side of this mountain, underneath a bridge full of people. In Cole’s works, waterfalls often symbolize the relentless flow of time and continuity of nature, despite human impact. This waterfall is flowing rapidly, as seen by the water splashing off the rocky path. This waterfall is significantly larger than any of the human figures crossing on the bridges surrounding it, reminding viewers that humanity’s presence is slight compared to the natural world. Additionally, this same waterfall is evident in The Present, except it has been minimized to a faint stream. The transition from this powerful current to a meek stream is consistent with the rise and fall of this civilization. Nature continues as the constant flow of this waterfall exhibits, but the human impact left behind forever altered this picturesque landscape.

This image is zooming in on the right of the canvas, showing a waterfall flowing down the mountainside below a winding path of bridges bringing people to the jousting event.

The Sun’s Shadows

This painting is characterized by a sunlit, luminous atmosphere that fills the entire scene with a radiant sense of cheerfulness. The glaringly highlighted areas where the sun is shining brightest evoke the feeling of an idyllic summer day, emphasizing the festive mood of the medieval tournament. These areas also capture the viewers’ attention first, as the illuminated effect draws in the viewer’s immediate attention. This contrast between beams of sunlit areas and the shaded areas helps create a visual path, enhancing the sense of depth and narrative progression in this very detailed scene. For Cole specifically, sunlight also carries symbolic weight as it often represents enlightenment, spirituality, and the pinnacle of human achievement.5 This intense accentuation of the sun’s rays stands in deliberate contrast to the dark, dire, overgrown scene in the later painting in this series, visually reinforcing the drastic drop from the peak to the ultimate destruction of this civilization.    

This image is zoomed in on the jousting tournament, showing the two jousters on horseback, illuminated by the sun. The crowd is directly behind them, in stands below the trees; a group is partially covered by a tent.
This image is zoomed in to the far left of the painting showing several horses and jousters gathered behind guards in the waiting area. A long line of fans are waiting behind the horse area to onlook the event.

Distant Civilization

A very close look reveals another structure in the far distance on the riverbanks at the top left of this painting. Cole’s inclusion of another civilization reflects his view of the cyclical nature of human societies. Cole believed that history operated in cycles, determined by the tension between human achievement and natural power. As seen in his other series, such as The Course of Empire, civilizations reach a peak when all of humanity is flourishing.6 He is showing an indication that human impact has extended beyond this castle’s domain. Further, the medieval tournament that the painting is centered on is indicative that the grandeur and achievements of the past have extended beyond nature’s control. 

This image is zooming in to the top left corner of the painting highlighting a very distant winding river with a structure that resembles another castle on the riverbanks.

Footnotes

  1. Angela L Miller, “Cole, Thomas,” Grove Art Online, 2003, https://doi-org.amherst.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T018539. ↩︎
  2. Christine T. Robinson, John R. Stilgoe, Ellwood C. Parry III, and Frances F. Dunwell, Thomas Cole: Drawn to Nature (Albany Institute of History & Art, 1993). ↩︎
  3. Robinson et al., Thomas Cole: Drawn to Nature. ↩︎
  4. Thomas Cole, “Essay on American Scenery,” American Monthly Magazine 1 (January 1836): 1–12. ↩︎
  5. Apex, “From Dust to Dust: Analyzing Thomas Cole’s The Course of Empire Series with Social Cycle Theory,” Medium, April 8, 2019. https://apexaporian.medium.com/from-dust-to-dust-analyzing-thomas-coles-the-course-of-empire-series-with-social-cycle-theory-db583cffade3. ↩︎
  6. Louis Legrand Noble and Elliot S. Vessel, The Life and Works of Thomas Cole (Harvard University Press, 1964). ↩︎