Art & Film: Cole/Mann

From the canvas to the cinema.

David Liu | 24 March 2011

Home in the Woods (Thomas Cole, 1847; oil on canvas)

The Course of Empire: The Savage State (Thomas Cole, 1836; oil on canvas)

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The Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann, 1992)

Set in 1757 during the French and Indian War, James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans first appeared in print in February 1826. Taking cues from the author’s contemporaries — Thomas Cole and other artists of the Hudson River School — director Mann employs a visual palette with elements of both romanticism and naturalism.