American Progress

American Progress (1872)

American Progress is an 1872 painting by John Gast, a Prussian-born painter, printer, and lithographer who lived and worked most of his life in Brooklyn, New York. American Progress, an allegory of Manifest Destiny, was widely disseminated in chromolithographic prints. It is now held by the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, California.[1]

Other than he painted American Progress, and that he was born December 21, 1842, in Berlin, and died July 26, 1896, in Brooklyn,[2], little else is known about Gast's life.

Description

American Progress has become a seminal example of American Western art. The painting serves as an allegory for the Manifest Destiny and American westward expansion. The 12.75 by 16.75 inch painting was commissioned in 1872 by George Crofutt, a publisher of American Western travel guides, and has been frequently reproduced. The woman in the center is called "Progress", and on her head is what Crofutt calls "The Star of the Empire". Progress moves from the light-skied east to the dark and treacherous West, leading white settlers who follow her either on foot or by stagecoach, horseback, conestoga wagon, wagon train, or riding steam trains.[3] Progress lays a telegraph wire with one hand and carries a school book in the other. As she moves westward, indigenous people and a herd of buffalo are seen fleeing her and the settlers.[4]

American Progress visually portrays the process of American westward expansion. The figure of Progress is ushering an era of modernization, development, and advancement to the West, which in the painting is portrayed as a dark and savage place, especially when compared to the eastern side of the painting. But, with the ushering in of these developments, the indigenous people living in the West and their way of life is cast out.

American Progress is also an allegory of Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis, the American Western history framework derived from his essay, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History".

References

  1. ↑ Museum website entry
  2. ↑ Obituary in the Brooklyn Eagle, July 27, 1896, p. 7, c. 2
  3. ↑ "American Progress". Retrieved May 1, 2017.
  4. ↑ Sandweiss, Martha A. "John Gast, American Progress, 1872". Retrieved May 1, 2017.
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