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Preview image of work. oil on canvas,  Down East 3336
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1939.164

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Down East

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Artist

Charles Codman (Chas. Codman) (1800 - 1842)

Title

Down East

Creation Date

1838

Century

19th century

Dimensions

24 1/8 in. x 35 1/4 in. (61.28 cm x 89.54 cm)

Object Type

painting

Creation Place

North America, United States

Medium and Support

oil on canvas

Credit Line

Gift of Mrs. Marshall P. Slade

Copyright

Public Domain

Accession Number

1939.164

Charles Codman began his career as a sign painter and later gained acclaim as one of the earliest landscape painters of the Maine wilderness. In Down East, two workers prepare an oxen wagon to transport stacks of lumber presumably from the mill in the background. Such natural resources were vital to inaugurating the process of industrialization and urbanization. The men are diminutive in size as compared to the vast landscape around them. The dense, dark forests dwarf the men, hinting at the threatening nature of untamed lands. During the nineteenth century, Americans were fascinated with the rugged wilderness, but also strove to “conquer” and settle these “wild” places.

Keywords: landscape (representation)