Horizon of the New World

Horizon of the New World from c. 1830 is an anonymous American landscape painting that depicts an expansive view of the American landscape in the manner of the Hudson River School. The title suggests the American landscape as a symbol of new beginnings and unlimited possibility—the 'new world' that attracted European settlers and that American painters celebrated in the landscape tradition that began with the Hudson River School. The c. 1830 date places this in the formative period of American landscape painting, when the Hudson River School was establishing the visual vocabulary of the American landscape that would define national identity for the rest of the century.

Horizon of the New World is important in the history of American landscape painting because it embodies the idea of the American landscape as a symbol of national identity that the Hudson River School established in the early 19th century. The title explicitly connects the American landscape to the idea of the 'new world'—a symbol of unlimited possibility that was central to American national identity in the Jacksonian era.

Horizon of the New World is American landscape as national identity: an expansive view that embodies the idea of the American landscape as a symbol of unlimited possibility and new beginnings. The c. 1830 painting reflects the Hudson River School's establishment of landscape as the visual vocabulary of American national identity.