Thomas Doughty's landscape is a fantasy of the American frontier that echoes Thomas Jefferson's hopes for the nation. Lush vegetation, towering mountains, and crystal waters surround the fishermen, who harvest the riches of land and water without disturbing paradise. When Doughty created this painting, expansion was in full swing, and Jefferson's idea of a new republic strongly rooted in the land remained a powerful image for European settlers who pushed the nation's frontiers westward to the Mississippi River.
Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006
