How did the Travel to the American West influence the Art of Albert Bierstadt?

How did the Travel to the American West influence the Art of Albert Bierstadt

The American West has always been a major attraction point for many artists. Of them all,

Albert Bierstadt’s style of painting has always been the most prominent and significant.

He was a German painter famous for the grandeur of his opulent and expansive landscapes of the American West. You can learn about Bierstadt painter through his paintings and more.

Somehow, travel has been the driving force in Bierstadt’s art and led to his artistic success. Here you will find a list of Albert Bierstadt’s most famous paintings, showing his influence and love for travel on his most beautiful canvas.

Valley of the Yosemite

Completed in the year 1864, Valley of the Yosemite belongs to a high-class painting by Albert Bierstadt. Albert Bierstadt’s paintings describes Yosemite in its true form. This painting by Bierstadt was painted in his New York studio.

However, this painting was made on a smaller scale than his other larger panoramic scenes. It was a canvas done on paperboard with less monumental effects. The quantified portrait depicts a virtual horizontal panorama of the landscape.

It dominates as the upward thrusting verticality of the mountains full of nature’s vivid shades. The paintings recess to blues and yellows of aerial perspective, showing peculiar similarities of cyclopean buttresses.

There are flat veins of water cascading in barely noticeable cataracts down into the lake. It merely emphasizes the vast bulk of the range. Seems as if it presses down and surrounds the water where branches of the trees are echoed.

The Rocky Mountains

The landscape oil painting by Bierstadt painter ‘The Rocky Mountains’, was made in 1863. It depicts the Rocky Mountains based on his drawings produced during 1859 Honey Road Survey Party trips with Frederick W. Lander.

The artists in his western art showcase the majesty and unspoiled beauty of the nation’s wilderness. Albert Bierstadt’s painting, especially this one, managed to strike a chord with current Americans.

It was a step forward toward the concept of Manifest Destiny. These Rocky Mountains show symbolism to two things at the same time. They are both a source of natural beauty and barriers to westward progress.

Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California

It’s no offense to say this reproduction is Albert Bierstadt’s most famous painting. The Sierra Nevada, California, dates back to the 1868 oil-on-canvas painting. The painting depicts a landscape scene in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range.

The artwork was created in the artist’s Rome studio. It was, however, displayed around Europe with a sparring interest in immigration to the United States. On the left of the painting and in the background, it portrays craggy mountains.

These mountains reach out toward a brilliant sky with the Sun’s rays peeping through the clouds. On the right side of the picture are some mountains that overlook a tranquil lake. A group of deer and ducks is on its edge, flanked by woods.

California Spring

The idyllic landscape by Albert Bierstadt is an admiration along the banks of the Sacramento River in “California Spring”. It idealizes the American West as an Eden-like utopia.

It shows the grim reality of the people surviving the tough times and fighting back. They were oblivious to the hard realities of agricultural life and natural calamities such as frequent droughts, overgrazing, and poverty.

On the full-size painting, you can easily spot a section of the horizon between the California oak trees. In addition, he depicted the dome of the Sacramento State Capitol in sheer detail.

Sunrise on Matterhorn

The artwork Sunrise on the Matterhorn is a classical inspiration oil on canvas depicting the renowned Matterhorn. It was painted prominently while Bierstadt traveled to Switzerland between 1867 and 1897.

It is presently housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The artist’s impeached imagination led to the beautiful picture of the Matterhorn on the canvas.

It juxtaposes the cloud-encircled mountain in a distant relationship with a low, rocky foreground. The tall pines accentuate the steepness of Matterhorn thrust on the bottom left.

The Bottom Line

Albert Bierstadt was a recognized artist known for his exceptional contribution to American Art in the west. He made dozens of paintings highlighting the beauty and severity of people living there, fighting all the odds against injustice, and much more.

How did the Travel to the American West influence the Art of Albert Bierstadt?

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