Becoming Perfect: Landscape

Title: Landscape in the Adirondacks

Date: 1878

Nationality: American

Creator: Frederic Edwin Church

Medium: Oil on canvas

(See “List of works from Frederic Edwin Church”)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Landscape_in_the
_Adirondacks_Frederic_Edwin_Church.jpg

            This is an example of a landscape painting, which became popular during the Romantic era. It shows a beautiful, serene, almost mystical shoreline and a solo person on a small boat, seemingly heading towards the sun. This painting was chosen to emphasize that learning has the goal of becoming perfect. Nature is perhaps one of the most calming and “perfect” things that we can experience, evidenced by the many throughout the ages who have sought refuge in its beauty. It thus can be seen as our goal—that we are headed to peaceful perfection. In addition, the painting also shows a person on a boat headed toward the sun. To me, this represents that we aim toward the “sun” which is representative of perfection and glory. A civilization needs to have the end goal of perfection. If it does not, that means it is cynical, disbelieves in its good desires and hopes, and settles for “good enough.” Eventually this will lead to a lack of learning and motivation, and society will halter. However, perfection is an end goal, so it should not cause worry, anxiety, or feelings of worthlessness. Instead, it should inspire all that their good dreams and hopes for the future are possible, and that we should all head in that direction as we learn and expand ourselves. This gives a society a purpose to all the learning they do.