Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

breaking through the clouds overhead, which suggests a heavenly
consecration of the land. That Bierstadt focused attention on the
West is not insignificant. By calling national attention to the splen-
dor and uniqueness of the regions beyond the Rocky Mountains,
Bierstadt’s paintings reinforced the idea of Manifest Destiny. This
popular 19th-century doctrine held that westward expansion across
the continent was the logical destiny of the United States. As John L.
O’Sullivan (1813–1895) expounded in the earliest known use of the
term in 1845, “Our manifest destiny [is] to overspread the continent
allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multi-
plying millions.”^6 Paintings of the scenic splendor of the American
West helped to mute growing concerns about the realities of con-
quest, the displacement of the Native Americans, and the exploita-
tion of the environment. It should come as no surprise that among
those most eager to purchase Bierstadt’s work were mail-service

magnates and railroad builders—the very entrepreneurs and finan-

ciers involved in westward expansion.

FREDERIC CHURCH Another painter usually associated

with the Hudson River School was Frederic Edwin Church

(1826–1900), but his interest in landscape scenes extended beyond

America. During his life he traveled to South America, Mexico,

Europe, the Middle East, Newfoundland, and Labrador. Church’s

paintings are firmly in the idiom of the Romantic sublime, yet they

also reveal contradictions and conflicts in the constructed mythol-

ogy of American providence and character.Twilight in the Wilderness

(FIG. 30-26) presents a panoramic view of the sun setting over the

majestic landscape. Beyond Church’s precise depiction of the awe-

inspiring spectacle of nature, the painting is remarkable for what it

does not depict. Like Constable, Church and the other Hudson River

Romanticism 797

30-25Albert Bierstadt,

Among the Sierra Nevada

Mountains, California,1868.

Oil on canvas, 6 10 .

National Museum of

American Art, Smithsonian

Institution, Washington,

D.C.

Bierstadt’s panoramic land-

scape presents the breath-

taking natural beauty of the

American West. His paintings

reinforced the 19th-century

doctrine of Manifest Destiny,

which justified western

expansion.

30-26Frederic Edwin

Church,Twilight in the

Wilderness,1860s. Oil on

canvas, 3 4  5  4 .

Cleveland Museum of Art,

Cleveland (Mr. and Mrs.

William H. Marlatt Fund,

1965.233).

Church’s paintings eloquently

express the Romantic notion

of the sublime. Painted

during the Civil War, this

wilderness landscape

presents an idealistic view

of America free of conflict.

1 ft.

1 ft.