Justice of the Plains: The Movement Westward

Year1936

Classification painting

Medium oil on canvas

Dimensions90 x 240 in. (228.6 x 609.6 cm)

Credits Commissioned through the Section of Fine Arts, 1934 - 1943
Fine Arts Collection
U.S. General Services Administration

John Steuart Curry was commissioned to paint two murals for the Department of Justice building by the Section of Painting and Sculpture in 1936. The first, Justice of the Plains: The Movement Westward, represents a heroic outlook on the hardships of the journey westward, the dangers of the unknown, and the improvisation of justice to meet the needs of settlers during the nineteenth century. At the far right, Curry included a portrait of himself as a man smoking a corn cob pipe. Initially, Curry only planned to depict families moving to the American West. After receiving criticism from the Section for failing to represent any form of justice in the mural, he added the renegade riders and prairie fire on the left side of the panel to imply the urgency of justice in a lawless land. Located beneath the aluminum leaf ceiling, the reflected paint of Curry’s mural captures the splendor and hope of the pioneers’ exploration of new land. Represented as one mass of figures, the families’ push forward suggests their unstoppable expansion and dominance over the rugged terrain. This celebratory and uncritical view of Manifest Destiny omits the story of displacement endured by American Indians. The mural is characteristic of romanticized views of the West made in the 1930s that celebrate American expansionism with little consideration of the harsh realities experienced by indigenous communities.