The Subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge is an 1829 painting by English-born American artist Thomas Cole depicting the aftermath of the Great Flood.

It is on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Cole collected extensive notes on geology before painting.

He consulted geologists and other scientists such as Benjamin Silliman to gather background information on what the world might have looked like after the Biblical Flood.

The sky outside the cavern is bright and in the distance floats an Ark and a dove flies.

[3] The cleansing nature of the Flood is meant to represent America as a "New Eden" free of the abusive power of the European monarchies.