This painting is Campfire on the Ledge by Charles Lanman, released in 1830. It portrays the American west in a way many paintings of the era do - as an extensive landscape with the viewer (and any people present) looking down over it. The implicit idea is that the land is "open", available to be taken by the figures in the foreground. This inherent possessiveness is one of the defining factors of the idea of "manifest destiny", to "overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions". Accordingly, the landscapes depicted are also almost always empty in order to give the impression they are free for the taking. It also has to do with the idea of "wilderness", a concept America was beginning to love - land untouched by humanity was regarded as noble and beautiful. Of course, the natives were left out of this vision.

They are also universally pleasing to the eye. This romanticism - from the colours of the leaves to the mountains in the distance to the lovely weather - is essential to the idea of the manifest destiny as it presents the new lands being taken as paradisaical, as according to the "Providence" idea. It would hardly be motivating to present the explorers taking new land that was cloudy or cold or dull in colour. The motivational aspect of these paintings should not be forgotten - people had to be convinced to live in the new areas too, so the paintings presented the areas as nice to live in, and thus create "our yearly multiplying millions".