Nature, Nation, and Conflict Thomas Cole's View Across Frenchman's Bay from Mt. Desert Island, After a Squall (1845)

Abstract

Record ID: 56

Program Affiliation: Service Learning

Presentation Type: Podium

Abstract: This presentation explores the tapestry of historical and cultural dynamics embedded in Thomas Cole's landscape, View Across Frenchman's Bay from Mt. Desert Island, After a Squall (1845, Cincinnati Art Museum). This paper provides an extensive analysis, employing formal, iconographical, and contextual approaches, to unravel the intricate layers of Cole's work, building on the scholarship of John Wilmerding, Linda Ferber, Ellwood Parry, and others. By analyzing religious and nationalist themes, I argue that the painting depicts humanity's relationship with nature as God's creation, in the lens of nationalism in the United States. Evoking Edmund Burke and the concept of the sublime, Cole depicted a fading squall, stormy waters, rocky cliffs, and an eagle perched on a precipice, likely a representation of nationalism. A small lone ship acts as an allegory about people in the natural world, as well as a reference to Christianity. Although the painting is set in Maine and obliquely refers to naval history, it also suggests the future potential of the country as a whole. This presentation places Cole's tableau within its broader contexts of nature, nation, and conflict in 19th-century America.