Collections Database

Label Text:
The peace and beauty of this river view is undeniable and yet images of Indigenous homelands produced during the nineteenth century do not leave all Native viewers with a sense of awe and grandeur. How do we Indigenous peoples, who relate deeply to waters that describe their relationship to this river in their very names, see landscapes? How do we look at the painting and not think of Indigenous people who lived along Kwinitekw (Connecticut River) and were driven from their homelands in the years just before this image was made? (Heid E. Erdrich. Boundless, 2023-2024)
This painting was adapted from an engraving by William H. Bartlett published in American Scenery, in either 1838 or 1840 (date usually given as 1840). View is looking north to the town of Hadley (looking south would be the Oxbow). By the early 1850s, a carriage road and hotel had been built on this site, which had become a popular tourist destination because it afforded panoramic views of the Connecticut Valley. Mead also owns the engraving by Bartlett (technically after drawing by Bartlett).

Tags:
rivers; water; reflection; suns; landscapes; environment

Subjects:
Reflection (Optics); Landscapes; Rivers; Sun; Water; Canvas

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1955.674

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.