The Profitable Myth of the Untamed Frontier
Thomas Cole did not pack up his easel and hike into the Missouri wilderness to paint Daniel Boone from life. He sat in his studio and read a wildly popular biography instead. It was 1826 and the newly founded National Academy of Design in New York needed a hit. Cole gave them exactly what they wanted. He delivered a pure and highly profitable American myth on a canvas measuring just fifteen by seventeen inches.
Daniel Boone at his Cabin at Great Osage Lake is not a portrait of a man. It is a portrait of an idea. Cole painted Boone as a tiny figure completely swallowed by the brutal reality of the landscape. The pioneer sits next to a modest cabin dwarfed by nature. Dead and twisted trees frame the scene like shattered bones. They warn the viewer that the wilderness is untamed and ready to snap you in half if you look away.
This small oil painting carried a massive cultural impact. It cemented the legend of the rugged and solitary pioneer carving a life out of the dirt. Cole knew his audience. He took the fantasy of frontier isolation and dressed it in dark earth tones for city dwellers who wanted to feel brave without getting their boots muddy. The myth sold and Cole became a star.
References
Cole, Thomas. Daniel Boone at his Cabin at Great Osage Lake. 1826. Oil on canvas. Mead Art Museum, Amherst.
Truettner, William H. The West as America. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.
Wilton, Andrew and Tim Barringer. American Sublime Landscape Painting in the United States 1820-1880. Princeton University Press, 2002.