Summer or Autumn? Picturing the American Republic

Jasper Francis Cropsey, Mount Jefferson, Pinkham Notch, White Mountains, 1857, oil on canvas, 80.01 x 125.73 cm (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts)
A conversation with Tyler Greene and Steven Zucker

[@marqbarq5977]

Thank you for putting this painting into context for its time. Many would just see it as a landscape, but after this, all the details speak to so much more.

[@mercoledi_falco]

To me, it's the first time to see this painting.
then it's Very Very Interesting to feel the mind of history from the work of art!
I'd like to appreciate the life, now. Thanks for sharing!

[@kurapimeal2767]

These episodes are great for your non-American audience! We learn all the American history we're not taught while in school 🥳🥳

[@i_amnell1543]

Yeah exactly

[@janeknight3597]

Is the second peak Mt Jefferson?

[@eaterdrinker000]

That's what I'm thinking.

[@guest_informant]

It might be a superficial assessment but my first thought was it reminds me of John Constable.

[@matthewpfeffer4569]

Also reminds me of Thomas Cole a bit

[@Sasha0927]

Omg, his giggle at the end had to be the cutest thing ever. What a lovely start to my day / month (after the brutality of the treadmill, that is). It's also on time for my devotional. Yes, He will provide one way or another. ❤

[@bthome123]

Or maybe it is just a pretty picture.

[@smarthistory-art-history]

We can always just look and enjoy the painting without the overlay of the political, economic, and social meaning. Art is wonderful in that it is also an esthetic experience. Nevertheless, this painting is firmly located in its historical and political context. The subject is Mt Jefferson, it was painted as the nation was rupturing due to slavery, and ambitious landscape paintings in the United States, thanks to Thomas Cole and Washington Allston were widely understood as being about more than a lovely vista, they were created to convey a larger message, whether religious or moral or political.