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The Subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge
Thomas Cole (born Bolton-le-Moors, England 1801-died Catskill, NY 1848)
1829
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Classification
- Paintings
- Dimensions
- 35 3/4 x 47 3/4 in. (90.8 x 121.4 cm)
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Katie Dean in memory of Minnibel S. and James Wallace Dean and museum purchase through the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program
- Rights
- CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Smithsonian Institution
About this work
Thomas Cole envisioned America as a new start for civilization. In his mind, the American Revolution was like the biblical story of the Great Flood, sweeping away the despotism of the British Crown. In this painting the waters from that Flood subside, suggesting a peaceful future for the young republic. A lone skull resting against the rocks suggests that the world has been washed clean of human folly. At the center of the painting, bathed in light, a dove flies toward land as the ark floats on the calm waters, ready to usher in a new and more enlightened era in America.
