Native American Landscape Paintings

The nature in which we live is truly beautiful and something to preserve and treasure. When the Europeans first came to North America, they were immediately in love with the views they encountered. They were interested in wanting to know more about the land, the animals that peeked around, and the people who called it home. Artists such as, John White had heard the tales of what Christopher Columbus had described during his time in North America, which led to them wanting to make their own discoveries (Pohl 140). Everyone had their own opinions and views of the world, but artists were able to capture the natural images and the feeling they had through their paintings (Pohl 140).
Landscape paintings became of interest to artists as a way to

depict nature, a man’s spiritual place in the world, and his relation to God (Pohl 144). The paintings of nature became a way for artists to express themselves visually and spiritually, while also expanding what people could see, read, and feel (Pohl 145). Landscape paintings helped to grow communities and expand the Western movement. It also produced the realities and arguments against American expansion by bringing to light issues of tearing down and using resources of nature to build communities and to increase material wealth, displacing Native Americans from their land and homes (Pohl 159).
Thomas Cole, an American artist who trained in Europe in landscape painting for a few years felt that America’s nature was the most beautiful to be seen. Cole depicted Native Americans in a few of his paintings (Pohl 148). The landscape painting of Niagara Falls was one of Cole’s most notable works of art. Cole preferred to leave out any materials signs of tourism out of his work (Pohl 148). People found very little interests in his religious paintings, but a wealthy industrialist named Luman Reed commissioned a series called, “The Course of Empire” (Pohl 149).This series of paintings is viewed as symbolistic, that a violent society will end in aggression (Pohl 149). The wealthy elite collected images of the wilderness art and developed a school called, “The Hudson River Landscape School,” led by Thomas Cole (Pohl 148). “The Voyage of Life,” a four part series was Thomas Cole’s most recognized art that he painted in the 1840s. The paintings included a castle in the sky and a guardian angel. After his passing in 1848, the series was considered a monument of his work. Cole’s landscape paintings of upstate New York developed his reputation of a great American artist (Pohl 148). His paintings were a review of Jacksonian democracies western growth.
Robert Scott Duncanson was influenced by Thomas Cole. Duncanson painted views of the Ohio landscape such as, the Blue Hole, Little Miami River, and Garden of Eden (Pohl 153). Duncanson tried to maintain the idea of wilderness landscape similar to Thomas Cole (Pohl 153). Duncanson was also known for depicting water in his landscapes.
Frederic Edwin Church, who studied with Thomas Cole had a different perspective on how he wanted people to perceive his landscapes. Church tried to show the industrialized development, such as, saw mills and the clearing of the land (Pohl 158). Church’s painting were photographic images that made you feel as if you were there (Pohl 157). Upon his return from South America, Church’s paintings started to show more deserted land (Pohl 159). He wanted people to view the land in a more intense way and see how America’s wilderness was vanishing (Pohl 159). One of Church’s most outstanding paintings was that of his expansion of the Hudson River. The mountains in the background helped give a broader view of the land in which the river set in. The Heart of Andes was a much larger portrait than that of Niagara Falls. Church did not pick a place for this painting, instead he used previous outlooks of the land to create the final image (Pohl 159). This painting was meant to show how beautiful nature was in God’s company. The scenery surrounding it was like a final eye opener of the wonderful universe created for us.
Transcendentalism which was started by Ralph Waldo Emerson was a form of American literary and poetry (Pohl 162). In his poetry, Emerson talked about the bond God and nature shared as well as the feelings he had towards nature (Pohl 162). Emerson felt that nature was a protector of him. Through nature, nothing could ever harm or disappoint him in life. The idea of the transparent eyeball was that Emerson could see and understand everything nature had to offer. Emerson was also known for writing poetry about the countryside.
The celebration of American landscape and poetry contributed to the concept of Manifest Destiny because it was the landscape paintings that drove the idea of a new world and way of life in the near future.

It was thought that God had a plan for Whites to move across both coasts and start the New World. In the painting, “Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way,” it shows how difficult and unforgiving the trip westward was (Pohl 163). However, the painting also shows a sigh of relief and excitement that Native American travelers had finally met their destination (Pohl 163). Unfortunately, Native American’s new way of life would be cut short years later due to Andrew Jackson’s secured Passage of the Indian Removal Bill (Pohl 163). This bill was responsible for relocating 70,000 Native Americans to Oklahoma (Pohl 163). The Cherokee who were the most affected group of Native Americans had adopted the living format of Whites. Once they were removed, Whites were able to take over their land. This removal also led to the “Trail of Tears” which ended up taking the lives of 4,000 to 16,000 Cherokee Indians. The Manifest Destiny also caused the uproar and eventual war with

Mexico.
Since landscape painting had become a popularity in the United States, a German-American artist named Albert Bierstadt decided to visit the Rockies and create some paintings of his own that used the hyper-realistic appearance (Pohl 162).

In 1857, Bierstadt joined an expedition to the West, where he made a name for himself after painting an image of The Rocky Mountains (Pohl 162). His painting included the images of the mountains, trees, clouds, and tents where Native Americans had once stayed (Pohl 163). His large panoramic views of his landscape painting, “The Rockies” led to public interest and a strong desire to travel far to see national territory and for Westward expansion (Pohl 163). His works of the Rocky Mountains toured the US and Europe and eventually was purchased by James McHenry who was invested in the railroads which furthered Westward expansion settlement, and the development of commercial interest (Pohl 163).
The beauty of nature as depicted in landscape art and poetry were responsible for leading people out West and expanding what we now call America. The artwork and poetry told a story of what life looked like back then and the hardships many people encountered thereafter. Art became a median to express how people worshiped God and chose to follow the path they were always destined for. It became a way to document and record history in the New World for others to view, appreciate, and

understand