Panoramas: The North American Landscape in Art– The Artist’s Perspective

Compilation of Images

Storm King Mountain, near West Point, New York, on the Hudson River, is named for the storm clouds that gather at its peak. Here the plumes of gray-black smoke from the steamboats counter the bank of clouds. Colman uses the smoke and clouds to weave a visual tapestry between the natural and the built environment. Further underscoring the union of humans and nature, Colman contrasts three types of river vessels: steam-powered, sailboats, and rowboats.

The artist presents a broad panorama of Arctic life in this print. Ducks swim in summer lakes and dogteams travel through winter snow. But there is evidence of change as well. Snow houses once gave shelter in winter, but new permanent structures, such as churches, now give physical and spiritual shelter. Ships travel through the summer waters bringing supplies and even tourists. Inuit people now live in a synthesis of Inuit and Western cultures.

José María Velasco, conscious of the profound transformation that the railway would bring about, shared in the optimism surrounding the intense construction activity undertaken to equip the country with a national network of railways. His paintings focus on the description of the passage of the train through areas where the engineers achieved their greatest feats of ingenuity. The curved bridge at the Metlac Ravine (1881) is an emblem of modernity. The railway system conceived of under Porfirio Díaz' regime was a concrete expression of a vision of the country and its relation to the world: mainlines to the northern border, and multiple branch lines to both coasts, as a stimulus to export and trade.