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Example research essay topic: Beauty Of Nature Manifest Destiny - 1,200 words

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Twilight in the Wilderness by Frederick Edwin Church is a picture of nature at its finest and it says a lot about the American identity at the time it was painted. Church painted Twilight in the Wilderness in the 1860 s, near the time of the Civil War. The painting is of a brilliant sunset in the mountain wilderness. The painting suggests many of the defining ideas of the time such as manifest destiny and the idea of nature being next to god. Twilight in the Wilderness is the perfect American painting. Americans at this time in history did not appreciate nature in and of itself.

Nature was seen for its practical values, not its beauty. A tract of land would be seen for the lumber growing on it, the drinking water flowing through it, and the gold under it. It is around the time this painting was painted that Americans began to see something in nature beyond its practical values. They began to see nature as having spiritual values as well. There had always been naturalists, like Frederick Church, and his spiritual mentor Alexander Van Humboldt, but they were not respected and their opinions were dismissed by most who heard what they have to say. America had such a vast untapped wilderness that Americans basically took it for granted.

Huntington says Twilight in the Wilderness is the ultimate wilderness landscape high art rooted in the depths of American experience. This painting is the descendant of those early confrontations with reality and those early, borrowed, world-purgation subjects that Church painted in his youth. [ 2 ] Church saw himself as a purveyor of nature. He was not trying to impress anyone by making nature seem better than it was, he was simply trying to show humanity what nature had to offer. He tried to paint factual and realistic paintings.

Twilight in the Wilderness is a very well-done painting technically as well. The brightly colored sky is as authentic as the photographs of clouds which he studied. As New World man and therefore Nature s favorite, he was quite content with nature as she was. Her meaning was self-evident to the initiated. His responsibility to humanity on this side of the Atlantic was not to manipulate but to re-create nature, quintessential nature. Twilight in the Wilderness does reflect several aspects of the culture of America of the 1860 s.

It is important to remember that this America was a country divided and about to go to war with itself. Enjoying the beauty of nature was probably one of the last things on the mind of the men going to fight and kill each other. Since the frontier had moved well west by this point, and the east was fairly stable, surviving in the wilderness was not something that most people had to face. Once one was no longer competing with nature to survive, then they can begin to sit back and enjoy its beauty. This is what is happening at this point. People are beginning to understand and enjoy the beauty of nature.

Nature is also beginning to be associated with God. People are sensing a spirituality and calming effect in those frontier lands so sparsely populated. The sky in Twilight in the Wilderness is a very foreboding sky. It is also a red white and blue sky. This could be a statement of some sort about the current state of the country at that time. The water flowing through the painting is also red.

This painting is telling of the bloodshed to come in the civil war. [ 1 ] Church was not simply a painter, he was a scholar and naturalist as well. He did not paint nature from afar either. He traveled to the far reaches of the world to make sketches for his paintings. There are not many things in Church s painting that are there by coincidence.

Another theme of American culture during the time this painting was painted is Manifest destiny. In my opinion, this painting directly addresses manifest destiny and proclaims that it is in fact destiny. The sky in Twilight in the Wilderness looks almost as if someone up in the heavens is begging Americans to come west to see what he has in store for them. The idea of looking into the distance at a sunset begs onlookers to go and find out what is between them and the sunset.

Manifest destiny was as much of a challenge as it was a necessity. Americans had no practical reason to continue going so far west. There was plenty of land east of the Mississippi for everyone. Granted there was no gold in the east, which is what really fueled the mass expansion westward.

Twilight in the Wilderness basically shows the viewer the challenges of moving west while showing the intangible rewards at the same time. The painting strongly suggests that there are inherent rewards in being around untouched wilderness. I think the painting is a very optimistic one. The painting seems to be telling of the good that will come when man gets closer to nature.

The actual painting itself is a masterpiece. It is a brilliant blending of colors and images. Huntington describes it as Ecstatic agitations and profound calm. Celestial purgation and earthly peace. Absolutely here and now before us.

The spectator engaged in the supreme moment of cosmic time. Twilight in the Wilderness was the natural apocalypse. I don t know if I would go that far, but I liked the painting too. The painting is also a part of a newly developing, but about to be torn apart, nationalism. America is starting to realize that there are few other countries in the world with the mass of land and resources that we have. Americans are beginning to take pride in this fact and painting is just one of the ways our frontier is glorified.

Twilight in the Wilderness is a beautiful painting of a naturally beautiful scene. Americans now wanted to see these scenes that they could not see before. For many people, paintings were the only way they could get that close to nature. For others on the frontier, they could see scenes as beautiful as this standing on their front porch. Twilight in the Wilderness is a reflection on several key points of American culture at this time of national crisis. The painting reflects the will of America to spread from coast to coast.

This idea of manifest destiny will be the cause of death and destruction, but we will never be stopped, and today our country s borders do stretch from coast to coast. Americans are also beginning to appreciate nature for its inherent values such as spiritualism. Nature is next to God in the opinion of many. Many Americans see nature as having a sort of cleansing power and seeking nature to cleanse themselves. Church does a beautiful job of making a painting that is technically correct yet extraordinarily powerful. It kind of makes me want to head west.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Hughes, Robert. American Visions. Alfred A.

Knopf, New York, 1997. 2. Huntington, David C. The Landscapes of Frederic Edwin Church. GeorgeBraziller, New York, 1966.


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Research essay sample on Beauty Of Nature Manifest Destiny

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