Has anyone else ever heard of, or seen these paintings before? I personally love them, espacially "The Savage State", and upon discovering these, did some research on the man who painted them.

As far as I can tell, the paintings tell the story of a great civilization, through it's birth, to it's golden ages, burning through the dark ages, and collapse, and ends in desolation, as is the "Course of Empire", or life of many great civilizations.

Oh, and I forgot (I tend to do that alot), heres a link to a page showing each painting in the series.

http://www.jcrows.com/cole.html