First Harvest in the Wilderness Print by Asher B. Durand
$69.00 at Brooklyn Museum.
Fine art print
Although not a scene of the American West, this painting can be interpreted within the context of the artistic perpetuation of the notion of Manifest Destiny. Here the American wilderness yields to progress as a lone farmer reaps his first harvest in a field, still dotted with the stumps of recently cleared trees. A boulder resting by the side of the road identifies him by name as “Graham.” Using funds bequeathed by one of its founders, Augustus Graham, the Brooklyn Museum commissioned Asher B. Durand to…