Curriculum Materials: Art in America
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Image 7 Edward K. Thomas Questions: |
Think Questions Teacher Answer Key
1. Edward K. Thomas made at least four paintings of Fort Snelling while stationed there. Why do you think he did that? (He wanted to record how it looked; people wanted to buy his paintings.) Why might someone want a painting like this? (To recall the experience of being stationed at the fort; because they had never been in the area and wanted to know what it looked like; because it is a PICTURESQUE place.)
2. Do you think Thomas was more interested in telling a story about Fort Snelling or showing exactly what he saw? Support your response.
3. The U.S. Army built Fort Snelling to ensure American control over this area. What does this painting tell you about Euro-American attitudes toward the wilderness in the mid-19th century? (Land was something to be taken over, settled, and controlled.) Does this attitude still exist today? What can people do today to prevent the destruction of the wilderness?
4. Why do you think Thomas included the Dakota Indians in the FOREGROUND of this painting? What details did he include to identify them as Indians? (Tepees, feather headdresses, pole with enemy scalps.) Many European Americans at this time believed that the Native Americans were less civilized than they themselves were. How does Thomas's representation contribute to this stereotype? What stereotypes of Native Americans still exist today? In what ways are these stereotypes damaging?
5. Compare and contrast Thomas's painting View of Fort
Snelling to Henry Lewis's contemporary
painting St. Anthony Falls. Where are these sites?
(Both are in Minnesota.) What do these paintings have
in common? (They are both
LANDSCAPES; both have
a lot of detail.) What view of nature does each present?
What does each say about the relationship of humans to
nature in the mid-19th century? Which one appears more
accurate? Why? (Lewis's painting seems more accurate
because of his
NATURALISTIC
painting style.) What might account for their very
different painting styles? (Thomas
had no training as an artist; Lewis
had extensive training in Europe.) When was each
painting made? (Thomas painted
Fort Snelling around 1850, and
Lewis painted St.
Anthony Falls in 1855.) Fort
Snelling was constructed between 1820 and 1824 using
logs from a mill built by U.S. soldiers at
St. Anthony Falls. Considering this
information along with the dates of each painting, which one
seems more accurate? (Lewis's painting cannot be accurate
since he chose to leave out the mill.) Also discuss the
ways both artists misrepresent the American Indians. How do
their representations differ?
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