Study of Wawayanda Lake, Orange Co. 1873

David Johnson made this oil painting, Study of Wawayanda Lake, Orange Co., in the 19th century. It depicts an apparently untouched landscape, but we should always remember that landscapes, even ones that seem completely natural, are shaped by social forces. This painting belongs to the Hudson River School, a mid-19th century American art movement. The movement's artists saw themselves as recording a disappearing wilderness and their paintings promoted the idea of westward expansion. Manifest Destiny was the widely held belief that American settlers were destined to expand throughout the continent. These paintings helped to promote and justify the displacement of Native American populations and the exploitation of natural resources. Art history can help us to understand these paintings as products of their time, reflecting the social, political, and economic forces that shaped American society in the 19th century. Primary source documents from the period can shed more light on this.