"A series of five pictures, illustrating a nation's rise, prog- ress, greatness, decline and fall, and the consequent changes in the same landscape. Note. The isolated rock crowning a pre- ciptious hill in the distance, identifies the scene in each of the series, but the observer's position varies in several pict- ures. 'First freedom and then glory, when that fails,/ wealth, vice, corruption.' the moon ascends the twilight sky near where the sun rose in the first picture. The last rays of the departed sun illumine a lonely column of the once proud city, on whose capital the heron has built her a nest. The shades of evening steal over shattered and ivy-grown ruins. The steep promontory, with its insulated rock, still rears against the sky unmoved, unchanged, but violence and time have crumbled the works of man, and art is again resolving into elemental nature. the gorgeous pageant has passed -- the roar of the battle has ceased -- the multitude has sunk in the dust -- the empire is extinct. (Reed collection)." [P. 8 - 9.]
Catalogue of the Exhibition of the New-York Gallery of the Fine Arts. Founded 1844. Now open in the large Saloon of the National Academy of Design, corner of Broadway and Leonard-Street. New York: James Van Norden & Co, Printers, No. 60 William-Street. 1844.
