''Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way'' (also known as ''Westward Ho'') is a painted

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

displayed behind the western staircase of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

chamber in the

United States Capitol Building The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill ...

. The mural was painted by

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze (May 24, 1816July 18, 1868) was a German-American history painter best known for his 1851 painting '' Washington Crossing the Delaware''. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. Biography Leutze was born ...

in 1861 and symbolizes Manifest Destiny, the belief that the United States was destined for Western exploration and expansion originating from the initial colonies along the

Atlantic seaboard The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Eastern United States meets the North Atlantic Ocean. The eastern seaboard contains the coa ...

to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

. A study measuring hangs in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Content

Leutze combined pioneer men and women, mountain guides, wagons, and mules to suggest a divinely ordained pilgrimage to the Promised Land of the western frontier. Within the left half of the picture is a depiction of the entrance to the San Francisco Bay, the

Golden Gate The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by t ...

, which is being pointed to by the pilgrim seated atop the rock in the foreground. Within the right hemisphere of the painting is a depiction of a valley, representing the Valley of Darkness and symbolic of the troubles faced by explorers. The imagery is familiar imperial iconography and is regarded as a symbol of

American exceptionalism American exceptionalism is the belief that the United States is inherently different from other nations. Peggy Noonan, an American political pundit, wrote in ''The Wall Street Journal'' that "America is not exceptional because it has long att ...

and the realization of Manifest Destiny, ultimately leading to the evolution of the American Empire.

Literary reference

The painting takes its inspiration from the closing lines of George Berkeley's ''Verses on the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America: Westward the course of empire takes its way; The first four Acts already past, A fifth shall close the Drama with the day; Time's noblest offspring is the last.

Influences

The imagery of the pilgrim gesturing on a high rock is very similar to the 5 cent

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...

, ''Fremont in the Rocky Mountains'', that was part of the 1898

Trans-Mississippi Issue The Trans-Mississippi Issue is a set of nine commemorative postage stamps issued by the United States to mark the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition held in Omaha, Nebraska. The finely engraved stamps depict various scenes of the West and are pres ...

and reprinted a century later. A

Currier and Ives Currier and Ives was a New York City printmaking business that operated between 1835 and 1907. Founded by Nathaniel Currier, the company designed and sold inexpensive, hand painted lithographic works based on news events, views of popular cult ...

print from 1868 uses the same title and theme for a very different print, showing a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

crossing a new settlement as the train goes west. A

photographic print Photographic printing is the process of producing a final image on paper for viewing, using chemically sensitized paper. The paper is exposed to a photographic negative, a positive transparency (or ''slide''), or a digital image file projected ...

and a stereograph by Alexander Gardner,Stereograph both of an 1867 end-of-track frontier construction train, were titled ''Westward The Course of Empire Takes Its Way''.

In popular culture

David Foster Wallace
named one of his short stories "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way" in his 1989 collection ''Girl with Curious Hair''. Early revisions of the 1995 computer game ''Oregon Trail II'' depict the study version of this painting on the title screen.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Westward The Course Of Empire Takes Its Way Paintings by Emanuel Leutze United States House of Representatives Masterpiece Museum Paintings in the United States Capitol 1861 paintings Horses in art Cattle in art Paintings of children Birds in art Flags in art Water in art Dogs in art History paintings