Landscape with Waterfall and Figures 1862 - 1865

William Louis Sonntag crafted this landscape painting with oil paints on canvas. While these are traditional materials, Sonntag’s approach complicates distinctions between fine art and commercial image-making. He likely built up the composition by layering thin glazes of paint, carefully blending tones to create atmospheric perspective and a sense of depth. This was a very time and labor-intensive process. The very smoothness of the surface belies the hours of work that were required to produce it. Consider how this painstaking process relates to the scene depicted. The painting invites us to contemplate the grandeur of nature, yet it is a carefully constructed illusion. The scene is idealized, sanitized of any hint of the industrial labor that was rapidly transforming the American landscape during Sonntag’s lifetime. By understanding Sonntag’s labor-intensive method, and his subtle manipulations of material, we can appreciate how this painting participates in a larger cultural project. It is a vision of nature that served both aesthetic and ideological purposes.