Shop art print and framed art American Progress by John Gast

American Progress was painted by John Gast in 1872. It depicts an allegory of Manifest Destiny. Thanks to its production in chromolithographic prints, American Progress was widely distributed; it is now kept at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. American Progress has become a founding example of Western American art. The painting is an allegory of Manifest Destiny and the Conquest of the West. The 29.2 × 40 cm painting was commissioned in 1872 by George Crofutt, a publisher of Western American travel guides, for his magazine Crofutt's Western World, which he publicised by distributing the painting fairly widely in the form of chromolithographic prints, and which included an engraving of the painting. Faced with the large number of images of the American West, Crofutt and Gast discussed the composition, which Crofutt described as follows: The woman in the centre is Columbia, a personification of the United States, here a symbol of progress; on her head is what Crofutt calls "The Star of Empire". Progress moves from the light in the eastern sky to the dark and treacherous west, leading the white settlers who follow it on foot, on horseback, by stagecoach, conestoga, convoy of stagecoaches (en), or by steam train. Progress lays a telegraph wire in one hand and carries a school book in the other. As Columbia moves westward, native peoples and a herd of buffalo flee it, while settlers advance, expressing the inevitability of technological progress. American [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the modern period. It belongs to the american school style.

 

Find the full description of American Progress by John Gast on Wikipedia.