Deer on the Prairie 

Editor: Here we have "Deer on the Prairie" by William Holbrook Beard, done with oil paints. There’s something melancholic about the subdued color palette, yet the herd of deer suggests abundance and perhaps even a sense of hope. What strikes you most about this piece? Curator: What interests me immediately is how this work engages with ideas of Manifest Destiny, even subtly. How does portraying the deer in this vast, somewhat unsettled landscape contribute to a narrative about American expansion and its relationship to the natural world? Editor: I hadn’t considered that. It's interesting to think about how the image of the animals might be used. It's an attractive image that promotes certain ideas, even now. Are the deer simply a subject or are they symbolic actors? Curator: Precisely. Think about the Hudson River School, to which Beard is connected. The popular aesthetic style often depicted scenes of pristine wilderness to both celebrate and arguably justify westward expansion. Considering that, how might the presence and behavior of these deer shape the viewer’s understanding of the land's potential and its accessibility for settlement and exploitation? Editor: So the romanticism makes the viewer forget the disruption caused by this so-called expansion. So are we to view Beard's decision to put deer as intentional rhetoric or just his preference for animal portraiture? Curator: That's a key question. Does this painting participate in the romanticized view of the West, or does it perhaps offer a critique by foregrounding the animals' displacement or vulnerability? What evidence do you see within the painting to support either interpretation? Editor: Hmm, I still think of it as quite beautiful at face value but this history definitely provides another, and darker, way to view it. Thanks for sharing that! Curator: My pleasure. Thinking critically about the power dynamics inherent in landscape art reveals much about the historical context in which these works were created and consumed.