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- Title
National Spectacle from the Boat and from the Train: Moulding Perceptions of History in American Scenic Guides of the Nineteenth Century.
- Authors
Johnston, Matt
- Abstract
A literary criticism is presented which explores the moulding perceptions of history of American scenic guides. A recent "Art Bulletin" article by Alan Wallach explains how Thomas Cole's "River in the Catskills" of 1843 registers the artist's anxiety about the destructive potential of modern improvements represented by the train, arguably the most potent symbol of change in the nineteenth century. Most of these scholars have focused on the way the genre has represented concerns about the nation's future development at the outset of the most intense period of American territorial expansion and settlement. Wallach's argument depends on the intractability of aesthetic conventions, the inability of painting to represent critical views of historical progress that involved radical changes to existing pictorial norms and habits.
- Subjects
LANDSCAPES; ARTISTS; COLE, Thomas, 1801-1848; WALLACH, Alan; PAINTING; INTELLECTUALS; SCHOLARS
- Publication
University of Toronto Quarterly, 2004, Vol 73, Issue 4, p1021
- ISSN
0042-0247
- Publication type
Literary Criticism
- DOI
10.3138/utq.73.4.1021