Nature as Nation: 19th-Century American Landscapes from the Collections

There is perhaps no theme more central to American national identity than the land. Over the years, land has served for Americans as a wellspring of aesthetic inspiration, spiritual sustenance, and economic opportunity. This permanent collection installation features highlights of the Corcoran’s ... Read more

There is perhaps no theme more central to American national identity than the land. Over the years, land has served for Americans as a wellspring of aesthetic inspiration, spiritual sustenance, and economic opportunity. This permanent collection installation features highlights of the Corcoran’s distinguished holdings of 19th-century American landscape painting, one of the best such collections in the world. The display includes a number of icons in the history of American art, such as Frederic Edwin Church’s groundbreaking 1857 painting Niagara and Albert Bierstadt’s epic 1888 western landscape The Last of the Buffalo.