Winter in the Rockies 1867

Thomas Moran painted ‘Winter in the Rockies’ to canvas, during the American expansion. Moran’s landscape art romanticized the American West during a period marked by expansion and conflict with indigenous populations. The sublime, untouched nature that Moran depicts often glosses over the complex history of settlement and displacement. This painting evokes both a sense of serene beauty and invites us to consider the narratives that are left out, whose stories are silenced in these landscapes? While marveling at the beauty of this painting, let’s also reflect on the historical context of manifest destiny and the impact it had on Native American communities. Consider too, the impact of climate change, and how landscapes once thought of as untouched, are now forever changed.