Fort Putnam 1837

Curator: Let's turn our attention now to Seth Eastman's pencil drawing, "Fort Putnam," created in 1837. Editor: It's so delicate. The faint pencil lines give it a ghostly quality, like a half-remembered dream of a landscape. And massive. Curator: Indeed. Eastman, an artist and West Point graduate, captured this vista of the Hudson Highlands during a period when the area held immense strategic and symbolic weight in American consciousness. He's positioning this work firmly within the aesthetic of the Hudson River School, despite his military background. Editor: Knowing it’s a fort makes me think about who this landscape excludes. Whose perspectives get lost when a space is militarized and defined by defense? Does landscape even exist as a free-floating, lovely idea when a gun could be trained on it? Curator: Those are vital questions to consider. The fort, which occupies a central position in the drawing, was indeed strategically significant, built during the Revolutionary War to protect the Hudson River from British naval incursions. But as you suggest, it’s equally relevant to see the construction of these national narratives, often marginalizing the experiences of indigenous populations whose ancestral lands were being surveyed, mapped, and claimed. Eastman’s depictions frequently sanitize these realities. Editor: And the drawing style… it feels like a sketch. Raw, unfinished. Curator: That rawness is interesting, right? Because although it feels immediate, it is in many ways part of Eastman’s overall approach to this landscape as territory: this isn't a scene, it's a record. A document. He leaves in the ruled lines—as a mark. Editor: It almost gives a clinical detachment to the beauty that's there. I'm both drawn in by the light, and repelled by the… erasure that comes along with it. It's like looking at beauty through a surveyor's grid. It’s definitely making me rethink landscape paintings in general. Curator: I’m glad it’s prompting those critical reflections. Editor: Me too!