Bierstadt's West
- ISBN-10
- 093503790X
- ISBN-13
- 9780935037906
- Category
- Hudson River school of landscape painting
- Pages
- 20
- Language
- English
- Published
- 1997
- Authors
- Albert Bierstadt, Gerald L. Carr
Description
Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) took his first trip West early in 1859 with Frederic Lander. He was chosen to be a civilian artist on a government expedition which set out to improve the wagon roads of the South Pass from Fort Kearny to the eastern border of California. By the middle of the year, Bierstadt was following the same steps taken by Alfred Jacob Miller twenty-two years earlier, on the Oregon Trail. Along the way he met and sketched thousands of discouraged gold seekers and immigrants. In late summer he returned east and began turning his sketches into huge canvases. Included among some of these earlier scenes were Chimney Rock, Fort Laramie and Laramie Park .Bierstadt's second trip, this time to the far West, took place in 1863. He traveled with his friend Fitz Ludlow. They spent several weeks in Yosemite Valley beyond the Sierra Nevada, eventually traveling up into Oregon. By 1864, scarcely five years after painting his first Rocky Mountain picture, Bierstadt was the most highly acclaimed American painter, rivaling even Frederick Church. As an artist, Bierstadt was concerned more with communicating his image of the West to the American public than with following changing styles in the art world. For him, the immensity of the Rocky Mountains could find appropriate expression only on large canvases. Despite their size, and the immensity of terrain represented, he also managed to include a lavish amount of detail, particularly in his foregrounds. As a consequence, he was often criticized in later years for overstatement, for combining several paintings into one canvas, sometimes from different perspectives. When he did not lose sight of the whole in his efforts to combine large vistas and accurate amounts of detail, the impact of his work could be universalizing.
Get the book
Similar books
-
Pioneer Photographers of the Far West: A Biographical Dictionary, 1840-1865
By Peter E. Palmquist, Thomas R. Kailbourn394 ; Humphrey's Journal 5 , no . ... 1861 ) ; David M. Gazlay , Gazlay's Business Directory of the Five Great Cities of California and Oregon ... 1864– 1865 ( San Francisco and New York : David M. Gazlay , 1864 ) . Fig . 127.
-
Albert Bierstadt: Painter of the American West
By Gordon HendricksAlbert Bierstadt: Painter of the American West
-
Albert Bierstadt
By Matthew BaigellEach of these handsome volumes contains 32 large color plates reproduced with superb fidelity on special paper. The informative text and detailed captions will provide inspiration and fresh insight for...
-
Colorado's Fourteeners: From Hikes to Climbs
By Gerry RoachDo not confuse 13,620foot Snowmass Peak with 14,092-foot Snowmass Mountain. 23A2 – Snowmass Mountain – Buckskin Pass Approach With a vehicle shuttle, this route makes sense as a one-way journey. e round trip over Buckskin Pass ...
-
The American West: A New Interpretive History, Second Edition
By Robert V. Hine, John Mack Faragher, Jon T. Coleman... 325 Garokontié, Daniel (Onondaga leader), 70 Gates, Bill, 393 Geffen, David, 428 gender roles, European vs. ... 288–91 Giannini, Amadeo Peter, 328, 390, 391 Glacier National Park, 356, 360 Glorieta Pass, battle of, 212 Goff, Seldon, ...
-
Reading the West: New Essays on the Literature of the American West
By Michael KowalewskiDavid M. Robinson , Emerson and the Conduct of Life 69. Cary Wolfe , The Limits of American Literary Ideology in Pound and Emerson 68. Andrew Levy , The Culture and Commerce of the American Short Story 67.
-
Albert Bierstadt: Art & Enterprise
By Nancy K. Anderson, Linda S. Ferber, Helena WrightThis magnificent volume provides a full appreciation of his talent as an artist.
-
Ranger McIntyre: The Mystery of the Missing Bierstadt
By James C. Work1920s: While Ranger McIntyre is investigating a series of break-ins at private homes located within RMNP, he finds the body of a man who was looking for a "lost" Bierstadt painting-and he's not the only one.
-
Chronology of the American West: From 23,000 B.C.E. through the Twentieth Century
By Scott C. ZemanThis four-part chronology presents the unfolding of the American West from 23,000 B.C.E. to A.D. 2001 Not long ago, the story of the American West was an uncomplicated tale.