  About the Artwork
  
  
  The reflection of an evening sky shimmers on a large lake dotted with small islands. The painter directs our attention to the nearest of the islands, from which the leafless limbs of two dying trees reach high into the yellowing sky. To their right, blending into the foliage, a man in Native American costume sits. 




The composition is probably based on a lake in New Hampshire. But Thomas Cole gave the painting a generic title: American Lake Scene. By the 1840s, most Native Americans remaining in New Hampshire had adopted European styles of dress and had largely melted into the local population. Like most of his Euro-American contemporaries, Cole believed that the destruction and eventual disappearance of Native American societies was inevitable. Cole used the Indigenous figure symbolically, to suggest that the man’s people — or at least their way of life — were dying, like the two tallest trees, like the setting sun.
  
  
  Title
  American Lake Scene
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1844
  
  Artist
  Thomas Cole
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1801-1848
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  American
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
  ----------
  
  
  Medium
  Oil on canvas
  
  
  Dimensions
  Unframed: 18 1/4 × 24 1/2 inches (46.4 × 62.2 cm)
  Framed: 27 1/8 × 33 × 4 inches (68.9 × 83.8 × 10.2 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  American Art before 1950
  
  
  Credit
  Gift of Douglas F. Roby
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  56.31
  
  
  Copyright
  Public Domain
