Afternoon along the Banks of a River 1862

David Johnson created ‘Afternoon along the Banks of a River’ as part of the Hudson River School, a mid-19th century American art movement. These artists shared a vision: to represent the American landscape as an idyllic, almost Edenic space. But let’s consider what’s missing here. Where are the Indigenous people who were being displaced from these very lands? Or the enslaved people whose labor fueled the economic growth that made such leisurely scenes possible? The painting’s serene surface obscures complex histories of dispossession and exploitation. Johnson, like his peers, helped construct an image of America as a pure, untainted wilderness – a powerful myth that continues to shape our understanding of national identity. Today, it invites us to reflect on what stories are told, and more importantly, whose stories are left out. This painting offers not just a view of nature, but a perspective on the values and erasures of its time.