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Painting Is American Progress By John Gast

Decent Essays

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but maybe they are worth far more than that. Pictures, although seemingly simple in nature, are extremely complex. Far too often, people overlook what a picture truly is. When a person looks at an image, they most likely see only the image, nothing else. Many people do not look deep enough into an image to fully comprehend the true meaning of it. However, when an individual begins to truly study an image in an attempt to understand the true complexity of it, they will be surprised at what they overlooked before. As stated by French Realist Painter, Gustave Courbet, “Fine art is knowledge made visible.”

American Progress by John Gast, 1872

At first glance, the painting above may seem very odd. There is a woman flying above what appears to be settlers on the open plains. However, after examining this image closely it begins to make more sense. The title of this painting is American Progress by John Gast. The title of this painting goes along with the painting itself very well as this painting depicts American progress.

The painting above is from the era of Manifest Destiny in the United States in the 19th century. Manifest Destiny is the belief that it was God 's will for America to stretch from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Americans believed that not only was the United States able to, but that the United States was destined to stretch across the continent, from ocean to ocean. This image is one of the

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