Sky – Northern Cuba 1853 - 1866

Charles DeWolf Brownell made this oil on canvas painting, "Sky – Northern Cuba," sometime in the 19th century. Brownell was an American painter who made several images of Cuba in the years before and during the Ten Years' War, a period of conflict between Cuban separatists and the Spanish colonial government. The painting is dominated by an expansive sky, filled with billowing clouds that suggest a dynamic, almost turbulent atmosphere. Below, a line of trees and several prominent palm trees dot the horizon, their fronds bent by the wind, indicating the powerful forces of nature at play. Cuba was then a Spanish colony with a plantation economy based on slavery, an economy that relied on sugar production. Brownell’s choice to paint the landscape and the sky evokes a sense of the sublime, in contrast to the social and political turmoil that marked this period. The social history of art encourages us to look beyond the aesthetic qualities of a work and consider the historical context in which it was created. By exploring archives, letters, and other historical documents, we can gain a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between art and society.