American Art Collaborative

Thomas Cole painted the American wilderness as a new Eden, a paradise untainted by the mistakes and sins of the Old World. The Subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge invokes a peaceful future for the young republic, free of the despotism of monarchs. The rocky cliffs framing the image echo the swirling waves that have just ravaged the earth. A lone skull tumbled against the rocks suggests that the world has been wiped clean of human folly. The ark waits in the calm, luminous water, poised to carry a reborn people into a new and more enlightening age symbolized by the mountainous sanctuary in the distance.

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006