The woman in Frank W. Benson's Lady Trying on a Hat has always been a character who caught my eye during visits to the Museum. From her averted gaze to the contrast between her white dress and the black hat, she is poised to play the lead role on the stage that Benson created.
How does a landscape painting made in 1828 by English-American artist Thomas Cole both reinforce and intervene in settler-colonial ideas about the environment and Native American people?