In the nineteenth century, the new United States aspired to expand westward, and the idea of Manifest Destiny was a common mindset among early Americans. One of the 19th-century "Manifest Destiny" paintings was John Gast's American Progress (1872), which depicts the expansion of the United States across North America.
It is a painting of westward expansion depicting a divine female figure, namely "Columbia" (representing America), who guides settlers westward. American westward expansion art, the Manifest Destiny Painting American Progress (1872), is a patriotic painting that portrays the beauty of the country's expansion and was printed in travel guides.
Manifest Destiny art presents expansion as a glorious and righteous thing, though in reality, it may not have been as just as the painting makes it seem. At that time, the settlers on the continent were driven westward not only because it offered a great opportunity to start a new life, but also because it was seen as a promising economic opportunity to exploit the continent's resources.
Manifest destiny picture the idea of free land, riches from gold, scenic surroundings, and religious and cultural freedom were among the factors drawing people west. While many people chose to move west for a better life, others, including many Native American tribes, were compelled to do so.
Manifest Destiny Painting: Meaning, History, Symbolism & Analysis
In 1872, John Gast's Manifest Destiny Painting symbolised the 19th-century belief that American Progress across North America was a divine mission of liberty. Manifest Destiny highlights the expansion of democracy, technology, and capitalism across the continent.
It is a westward expansion painting depicting a divine female figure (Columbia) inspiring settlers to move westward, promoting technology and civilisation, and displacing darkness and uncivilised people (Native Americans). She serves as a symbol of the American West's civilisation, where expansion is not seen as a land grab but rather as a noble advancement.
What Is the Manifest Destiny Painting?
Manifest Destiny art depicts a central female figure representing America, and the divine figure is the woman driving people out of savagery towards the West. The right side of the painting is the East, which is bright, developed, and orderly, and the left side is the West, which is dark, wild and stormy.
The female icon in the Manifest Destiny picture, Columbia, carries a schoolbook symbolising the significance of education and unwinds a telegraph wire, which symbolises communication.
Columbia is followed by miners, farmers, stagecoaches, railroads, and covered wagons in the westward migration. The Native Americans and the wild animals are running away from the light of civilisation towards the darkness at the uncharted West of the painting.
In the same era, other paintings explored similar themes, such as "Across the Continent" (1868) by Frances Flora Bond Palmer, which depicts trains and the inevitability of the frontier's transformation.
Who Created the Manifest Destiny Painting?
The most iconic portrayal of American Progress Manifest Destiny Painting, created by John Gast in 1872, was commissioned by George Crofutt to promote western expansion. Though the original painting was small, a western travel guide that became famous through widespread chromolithographic prints.
American Progress Painting Explained
American Progress Painting depicts an angelic Columbia, seen as the feminine spirit of the United States. She is floating over the continent, carrying a book in one hand and a telegraph wire in the other, and she is advancing, accompanied by an empire of trains, coaches, wagons, farmers, miners, and horse riders.
The objective of the painting was to encourage investment in Western railroads and inspire settlement in the newly scoured regions, both seen as noble causes. The Manifest Destiny picture fails to depict the violence, destruction of Native American culture and the sufferings of those who were displaced.
Manifest Destiny Painting Meaning
Manifest Destiny art is an American progress painting that shows how it continued to reshape the American West. The star on Colombia's forehead in the painting is seen as a "Star of Empire", which signifies the shift of power towards the West. It is also seen as a mask of divinely ordained progress.
Manifest Destiny art depicts technological and societal advancement. Railroads, stagecoaches, and telegraph lines symbolise America's technological superiority and unstoppable expansion.
Manifest Destiny artwork explanation: The manifest destiny picture shows a bear, a herd of bison and many Indigenous Americans all fleeing in terror. The manifest destiny art depicts the elimination of indigenous peoples as part of this "progress", and the westward expansion painting depicts the displacement as a righteous, almost holy, mission, a God-given right to conquer and settle the continent.
Such paintings served as national mythology, creating a visual narrative that justified territorial claims and the removal of native peoples, reinforcing ideas of American exceptionalism and the belief in the inherent superiority of white culture and class.
Symbolism in the Manifest Destiny Painting
The American Progress painting depicts eastern America on the right and western America on the left. The variation in light is made to compare the East and the West. The rightmost edge is bright, and the left is darker, with the furthest left edge adorned with storm clouds.
The gentle rolling hills of the East give way to ragged mountains as the painting moves left into the West. Through the landscape, the painter conveys the idea that the East is warm and welcoming, while the West is dark and ominous. The introduction of characters plays a great deal on the viewer's emotions, who imagine the West as unlit and disfavored.
The next Manifest Destiny Painting symbolism to highlight is the woman in the middle of the painting, who is shown as an angel, a divine messenger who emits light, and she is moving westwards, which creates a homely influence and an uplifting transformation of civilisation.
The painting shows covered wagons, then stagecoaches, then trains, all moving westward, which suggests that technological advancement follows the frontier as American folk continue to settle it. This thought was very widespread at the time.
However, the Westward expansion affected both Mexican Americans and Native Americans living in the region before the US expanded. The local communities lost their land and struggled to keep their way of life.
Manifest Destiny Painting Analysis
American Progress depicts the emotions of the American. It is a patriotic painting that lays out a fantastic vision of the present and future, but it lacks a logical argument at many levels.
The Manifest Destiny picture "American Progress" played on American emotions, promoting patriotism and incorporating innovations, such as telegraph lines, to hint at technological progress. The painting hints at the past and shows a new version of the evolving present, laying out a vision of the future. It lacks some logical arguments, while the thoughtful display portrays a static depiction of a dynamic story.
Manifest Destiny artwork explanation - The Manifest Destiny art meaning conveyed the American beliefs that the American Indians were mere savages, and driving them out of an area of land may have been considered an example of cleansing in some Americans' eyes; however, today, one can feel sympathy for the Indians shown fleeing on the left side of the painting.
Today, people may even view farmers who seize forest land negatively because they destroy habitats and force animals out of their natural homes.
Many artists have been using the Manifest Destiny painting symbolism and the American westward expansion art to draw or make simple Manifest Destiny easy drawing, which features a covered wagon moving towards a bright light, a rising sun, a train, and telegraph lines being laid, showcasing the movement of settlers, technology, and industry from East to West.
Some artists depict a few buffalo, mountains, and a town with a Church Steeple to represent the East in a Manifest Destiny drawing. Some manifest destiny clipart depicts a simple steam train and horizontal lines with small dots for telegraph wires, to depict American westward expansion art.
There were other paintings made on a similar theme, such as the mural "Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way" by a German-born American history painter in 1861, Emanuel Leutze, and the best known for "Washington Crossing the Delaware" (1851), which uses a similar style to "Westward the Course".
It is displayed in the US Capitol, near the Republican Congressional chambers. It shows fearless Americans on a cliff at the continental divide, looking westward toward the San Francisco Bay, bathed in golden light, a place that seems theirs. Still, it does not show people who have lived on this magnificent land for many, many centuries.
Historical Context of Manifest Destiny Art
The Louisiana Purchase from France resulted in the eventual transfer of land in North America to the United States. After Thomas Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase (1803), the young nation turned its eyes toward westward expansion, and America continued to push westward.
- The Westward expansion, driven by the movement of millions of people across the country into unexplored regions in the 1800s, and by the mass migration of Americans born in the US and those who came from other countries, expanded the US from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans.
- At the start of the nineteenth century, Americans believed that divine inspiration guided people into the unexplored regions. They were God's chosen ones, travelling west, and they must push west as fast as possible.
- Despite expansion, the government carefully deliberated which land to annex and which not to. The Congress was hesitant to move into land occupied by a large non-White population; instead, they opted to move into unoccupied land to establish a white majority. The fear of the unknown is evident in the painting, where the Natives and the wildfire are fleeing.
- However, the main outcome of Manifest Destiny was the displacement of Native Americans. Americans depicted travel to the West and unknown areas as a sign of progress, and this progress was also supported by communication across America and education.
- In 1830, the government passed the Indian Removal Act under President Jackson, which forced the Native Americans to relocate to the federal lands west of the Mississippi River. The rule led to the displacement of Natives, most notably the "Trail of Tears" that marked the last of the Natives being pushed out of the East, and it affected the Native population, resulting in over 5,000 Cherokee deaths.
- Manifest Destiny was one of the Westward expansion painting created in the 1840s and 1850s, which served as a motivating force, publicising visions of a nation's future. Many Americans believed that God chose them to conquer as much of the West as possible.
- The term Manifest Destiny was coined by John Louis O'Sullivan in 1845. Westward expansion in America was seen as a time of opportunity and second chances for some. Yet, it had a surfeit of consequences and side effects.
- In 1846, the United States Army initiated the Mexican-American War to seize the southwestern portion of the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, even though Mexico had legal claim to Texas and owned California, Arizona, and New Mexico. That war lasted until 1848, concluding with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in which the US paid Mexico $15 million for the ceded land.
- Pio Pico was the last Governor of California under Mexican rule, who served from 1845 to 1846. He opposed Manifest Destiny and the sale of California to the US. He went to the new American governor’s office after the sale, hoping to remain governor, but he was jailed for three weeks.
In 1872, a publisher, George Crofutt, hired a German-born, Brooklyn-based painter to depict his Western World magazine. John Gast's American Progress was painted seven years after the end of the Civil War and 24 years after the US government acquired land "the West" from Mexico in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
So American progress portrayed by Manifest Destiny, where people are moving west for a fresh start and better life, comes at the cost of destroying nature, wildlife and Native inhabitants, while all paying for the divine expansion to the West.
Why Is the Manifest Destiny Painting Controversial?
John Gast's 1872 painting American Progress (the Manifest Destiny painting) is controversial because it glorifies, or paints, a one-sided white-supremacist narrative of US expansion. The Manifest Destiny art meaning centres on the white, angelic figure and hides the violence behind all the travel and settlement.
It hides the destruction of forests, wildlife and indigenous communities. The painting does not show any weapon, but in reality, it was a bloody war marked by mass killings and massacres that happened when the Native Americans attempted to take their land.
The painting shows a peaceful movement that carries a divine message, asserting that Americans are meant to rule the continent. The imagery shows the West as uncivilised and Native Americans as uncivilised, who must be eradicated. It is not correct because the Natives were civilised, but they had a different culture.
The Manifest Destiny picture mass destruction as having a divine purpose. It propagates the idea that the divine wanted the white American to take the land, forcing the locals to learn English. Basically, the painting justifies the destruction of natural habitat and the settlement of migrants on the land, where the white occupant is destined to rule the conquered land.
The idea of American progress, combined with the concept of patriotism, created the impression that settling was the right thing to do. Still, evidence shows it involved significant devastation of bison herds, violence, clashes, and treaty-breaking. It is not unproblematic to travel alongside a covered wagon, ride in a stagecoach, or pull a handcart.
People travelling west for hundreds or thousands of miles faced many hardships, including limited supplies, extreme weather, and the loss of family members. They travelled across grasslands, rivers, mountains, and deserts, but these are not shown in the painting, which depicts only the luminous side of westward expansion.
Importance of Manifest Destiny Painting in American History
The 19th-century American westward movement, as expressed in the phrase Manifest Destiny, highlights the movement of settlers to the West, the development of railroads and telegraph lines, and the transition from stagecoaches to trains. Manifest Destiny art, in its meaning, appears beautiful and charming, depicting America floating westward, and the divine feminine bears the "bearing on her forehead the 'Star of Empire,'" bringing with her the means to "flash intelligence throughout the land."
The Manifest Destiny painting symbolism includes settlers taming the wild, Native Americans, and wild animals, and suggests that the white settlers' activities have a divine purpose. Still, it was a propaganda tool used to establish white supremacy and rule in the region that had a lot of resources and economic prospects.
The painting helped forge a national identity centred on progress and expansion, which was particularly important during the era of national division (Civil War). Rather, the movement uprooted people from their land, homes, and families and failed to deliver on the promise of the future they sought to create.
The painting served as a precursor to the "Industrial Revolution", but it led to the dark development that caused coal smoke pollution, which heated the planet's atmosphere.
Where Is the Manifest Destiny Painting Located Today?
The iconic 1872 painting American Progress by John Gast, a Prussian-born painter widely recognised as a 19th-century allegory of westward expansion, is part of the permanent collection of the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, California.
FAQ Section
What Is the Manifest Destiny Painting?
Manifest Destiny paintings symbolise the 19th-century belief that American settlers were divinely ordained to expand and take control as they moved westward. It propagated the idea that the westward journey of the white settlers had the divine purpose of establishing "civilisation" and bringing light, technology (railroads, telegraphs), education, and progress to the region and eliminating Native Americans was justified because the Natives were uncivilised and savages who lived in darkness. The painting exemplifies territorial acquisition and settlement as a God-given duty.
Who Painted the Manifest Destiny Painting?
The "Manifest Destiny painting," titled "American Progress," was painted by German-American artist John Gast in 1872.
What Does the Manifest Destiny Painting Symbolise?
John Gast's westward expansion painting, Manifest Destiny, depicts American Progress as the journey of a group of people to the West. It presents the acquisition of land and settlement in new regions as inevitable, ordained by God, and bringing civilisation, technology, growth, and democracy to a "dark" frontier.
Why Is the Manifest Destiny Painting Controversial?
The Westward Expansion painting is controversial because it glorifies the forced destruction of forest habitats and the forceful occupation of land occupied by Native Americans. It glorifies the land grab propaganda and validates white supremacy, imperialism, and the violent expansion of the United States.
What Is the Woman in the Manifest Destiny Painting Holding?
The manifest destiny art depicts a luminous female figure, Columbia, who leads American settlers westward. The woman brings light to the dark, holding a schoolbook in one hand, symbolising education and with the other, stretching telegraph wires across the landscape, symbolising the establishment of communication and technology.
Is Manifest Destiny painting called American Progress?
Yes, the famous 1872 painting "Manifest Destiny," created by John Gast, features a divine feminine figure as the personification of America (Columbia) leading settlers, pioneers, and technology westward; it is called "American Progress."
Why Is Manifest Destiny Painting Important?
The Manifest Destiny painting is important because it represents the historical movement, the 19th-century belief that US settlers moving westward had a divine mission and were guided by a higher purpose. It propagates that the movement towards the West is inevitable, while it does not depict the forcible acquisition of land, destruction, and the killing of Native Americans.
