The Subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge
1829
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Katie Dean in memory of Minnibel S. and James Wallace Dean and museum purchase through the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program
Accession Number
1983.40
Tags
About this artwork
Thomas Cole envisioned America as a new start for civilization. In his mind, the American Revolution was like the biblical story of the Great Flood, sweeping away the despotism of the British Crown. In this painting the waters from that Flood subside, suggesting a peaceful future for the young republic. A lone skull resting against the rocks suggests that the world has been washed clean of human folly. At the center of the painting, bathed in light, a dove flies toward land as the ark floats on ...
About the Artist
Thomas Cole · 1801–1848
Thomas Cole (1801–1848) was an English-born American painter who founded the Hudson River School, the first major American art movement, and became the most influential landscape painter in nineteenth-century American art. Born in Bolton, Lancashire, England, he emigrated with his family to the United States in 1818, settling first in Ohio before moving to Philadelphia and then New York, where he ...