Evening in the Woods

Trees arc upward into a cathedral-like canopy of leaves in Whittredge’s wooded scene, his compressed and vertical composition indebted to the works of his colleague Asher Durand. The rocky foreground is mottled with moss, a resilient plant indicating the timeless cycle of decay and new life, and a stream meanders toward the soft glow of twilight. Prior to settler takeover, many Native communities used fire to manage the landscape, create travel routes, and encourage germination of useful plants. Amid Euro-American settlement and forced displacement of Native people, land management methods changed and forests like this were perceived as “wilderness” to settlers.