1. Portrait of Albert Bierstadt
ca. 1883, private collection
In this photograph taken by Charles Bierstadt, the artist’s brother, Albert Bierstadt appears as an
established, respected and wealthy Victorian gentleman.
At the time this photograph was taken, Bierstadt’s art was already considered to be going “out of
style” by the art world. Because many of his loyal customers were both upper middle class and
conservatively rich, however, he was able to maintain continued sales of his works, despite their
steady decline in appeal among the general public.
One of the attractive features of Bierstadt’s work was the enormous size of his canvases. They
were so large that viewers could inspect the details of the foreground and feel almost as if they
were about to step into the midst of the landscape.
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2. Surveyor’s Wagon in the Rockies
ca. 1859, oil on paper mounted on canvas, 7-3/4" x 12-7/8", St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
On his first trip out West in 1859, Bierstadt traveled with the Lander Survey expedition. The
sketches and oils that he created on this trip would probably have been small enough to fit into his
artist’s box, which may explain the small size of this work. It was very likely painted on-the-spot, en
plein air, during a brief stop along the expedition’s trail.
This scene appears to be a realistic portrayal of Bierstadt’s first glimpse of the untamed West. We
can imagine his appreciation and awe of the size and grandeur of the Rocky Mountains, rising just
ahead of the group, visible in the distance across the vast, rolling plains.
Bierstadt divided the painting space into foreground, middle ground and background, and he used
atmospheric perspective [where things appear lighter, hazier, and bluer the further away they are] to
create a feeling of great depth and distance. Warm, sunny values in the foreground create contrast
with the cloud-shaded area in the middle ground as well as with the cooler shades of blue in the
distant background.
Our eye is first drawn to the foreground and the highlights and darker details of the rustic Survey
camp wagon, mules, and horse. These are clearly the focal point of this painting and portraying
such detailed and interesting objects in the foreground became a familiar characteristic trademark of
Bierstadt’s compositions. Once he returned home, Bierstadt achieved immediate fame and success
and he always included interesting details such as these in his many huge, dramatic, colorful, and
emotional Romantic paintings.
Fun Fact: It was not until the late 1960s and early 1970s that several exhibits of Bierstadt’s small
sketches and oil paintings, like this one, revived a new American interest in this largely forgotten
artist.
Where are the darkest values in this painting? The darkest values in the painting are used to depict
the subject of this painting: one of the Survey camp wagons, mules, and horses. The rest of the
Survey party also appear in the central distance.
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4. The Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak
1863, oil on canvas, 7373-1/2” x 120120-3/4”, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
This work was one of Bierstadt’s first “great paintings,” (its size was about 6 x 10 feet) and it was composed
from many sketches that Bierstadt made during his first trip out west with the 1859 Colonel Lander expedition.
During that summer, the group reached the Wind River Range of the Rocky Mountains, in what is now
Wyoming. This scene was not actual, but was created from accurately detailed flora and fauna combined with
imaginary mountains that Bierstadt created to emulate the grandeur of the European Alps. Bierstadt named the
mountain in this painting “Lander’s Peak” in memory of Frederick Lander, his friend as well as the leader of the
1859 Lander Survey, who had recently died in a March,1862, Civil War battle. This painting catapulted Bierstadt
to fame when it was exhibited at the New York Metropolitan Fair in 1864, and it was promoted with an
engraving, a pamphlet, and its own traveling exhibition. Bierstadt became an instant celebrity as the visual
spokesman for “Manifest Destiny” and the Westward Expansion of America. For the rest of his life, Bierstadt
continued to translate such Romantic visions of our vast and beautiful country onto canvas. Bierstadt
traditionally layered his space by dividing it into 3 distinct areas: a detailed foreground, a band of water in the
middle distance, and magnificent mountains in the background that reached up into the clouds.
In the foreground of this painting we see the details of tribal life in a Shoshone [show SHOW nee] encampment
and note how the lighter, sunlit values contrast against shaded darker values to add both drama and emphasis
to this area of the painting. The viewer’s eye is next drawn to highlighted values in the middle ground with its
brightly lit waterfall and pool with a white band of reflected light. The waterfall and distant Lander’s Peak directly
above together create an effective visual central axis for the composition that symmetrically balances equallyequallyweighted dark masses of land on either side. The background contains huge, hazy mountains that create both
depth and distance through atmospheric perspective [where things appear lighter, hazier, and bluer the further
away they are]. Bierstadt also achieved a sense of deeper space through subtle value changes in the
background. Note how the haziest, highest and most distant mountains literally blend with, and fade into, the
clouds, thus creating a sense of great majesty and of infinite space.
Fun Fact: In 1865, this painting sold for the thenthen-astounding sum of $40,000—
$40,000—a remarkable amount back then!
By comparison, the annual income of a typical skilled laborer in 1863 was around $750.
Where does your eye go first when you look at this painting? Your eye first goes to the light values in the
foreground before traveling to similar light values in the middle ground of the waterfall area.
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5. A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie
1866, oil on canvas, 83” x 142”, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
This is a very large painting—about 7 x 12 feet! The composition is based on sketches and photographs
taken during Bierstadt’s second trip to the West in 1863 with his friend, writer Fitz Hugh Ludlow. The scene
shown here is the Rocky Mountains (a favorite subject), and even though this particular place did not
actually exist, Bierstadt created a successful and romantic interpretation of the wild, untamed land that he
visited in 1863. He decided to name the highest peak in this painting “Mt. Rosalie,” in honor of Rosalie
Ludlow , who was married to Fitz Ludlow at the time of Bierstadt’s second trip. The Ludlow marriage was a
difficult one, however, and Rosalie eventually divorced Ludlow before finally deciding to marry Bierstadt in
late1866, some ten months after this painting was actually completed.
Contrasts of bright sunlight and deep shadows, created by the approaching storm mentioned in the title,
work to draw the viewer into the composition. Mt. Rosalie emerges from the darkened storm clouds as a
bright sunlit peak. Like many Bierstadt compositions, the foreground space contains detailed foliage and
rock formations along with uniformly highlighted areas. Both the middle ground and the background contain
a reflective body of water, while the snowcapped mountain peak towers over all in the distant background.
Bierstadt also added an intermediate land mass in the foreground with a darker cluster of trees that
contrasts against the bright white values of the reflected water. All of these elements, including the visually
weighty dark mountains on the right and the dark “V” of the shadows in the middle background, together
create a balanced, yet asymmetrical, composition.
Bierstadt managed to add some unusual elements to his trademark compositional style in this painting.
Instead of just one central sunlit focus, he decided to develop two areas of light values: (1) there is the
rocky ledge in the center and (2) there is the sunlit Mt. Rosalie that glows among the clouds in the
background. These dramatic lighting contrasts create an alternating light and dark pattern across the
canvas which helps to generate a sense of awe at the magnificent power of nature in this vast wilderness.
Bierstadt created a truly Romantic painting, one that is filled with dramatic lighting, exotic subject matter,
and an appeal to human emotions.
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6. Yosemite Valley
Undated, oil on canvas, 35-1/2” x 58”, Haggin Collection, Stockton, CA
This symmetrically balanced composition is another example of Bierstadt’s signature style of
exaggerating the scale and size of the mountains that he created in his paintings. Isolated figures
and detailed foliage and rocks are scattered across the foreground. Sunlit water reflects the band
of darker-valued trees against the low horizon in the middle ground. Strong linear perspective
draws the viewer into the hazy central background, which is framed between two equally massive
mountain formations. Water and sky are depicted with the lightest values, while foreground grass
and middle ground trees are of darker values. All of these elements are visible because of strong
value contrasts, while the lesser value contrast of the far distance achieves a sense of depth and
space via atmospheric perspective [where things appear lighter, hazier, and bluer the further away
they are]. Note the very tall waterfall on the right; viewers must surely have felt the majesty of the
Yosemite Valley upon seeing its height depicted so skillfully and dramatically by Bierstadt.
Fun Fact: While Bierstadt sketched, painted, and traveled out West, the Civil War raged back
East. After visiting Yosemite in 1863, Bierstadt was drafted by the U. S. Army to fight in what
became known as the Civil War. By paying a special $300 fee, however, he managed to avoid any
actual military service.
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9. Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains
1868, oil on canvas, 72” x 120”, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.
This painting, completed in Europe while Bierstadt was on a two-year trip, is considered one of the
most important works of his career. It is not based on any specific site but is rather a constructed
scene with an almost generic title. It is, in fact, a composite of earlier paintings: the animals had
appeared in earlier paintings; the cliff on the left is a reconfiguration of El Capitan in the Yosemite
Valley; the mountain peak on the right reminds one of Lander’s Peak or Mt. Rosalie [both
imaginary mountains named by Bierstadt]. This is a “perfect scene” of a wilderness paradise—it
would not exist in reality.
Bierstadt approached the foreground from an angle, and he included minute details in the
grasses, rocks, and animals shown in the foreground. The highlighted values of the reflective
water visually draw the viewer to the middle ground in the center of the canvas, where a waterfall
emerges from the low cliff to create a pool of reflected white water. Bierstadt balanced mountains
and another gigantic waterfall on the left side of the composition with a group of equally tall,
darker-valued trees on the right. He also exaggerated and emphasized many natural forms with
highlights created by a sunlit light source hiding behind the clouds. High-value contrasts also
emphasize important details in the lower part of the composition’s foreground while the lightest
values create atmospheric perspective [where things appear lighter, hazier, and bluer the further
away they are] in the distant waterfalls and mountains that reach to the top of the sky in the hazy
background.
Trees, isolated figures, reflective water, dramatic lighting, high contrast of light and dark, and
idealized scenery were all trademarks of Bierstadt’s Romantic style of painting at the peak of his
career, fame, and popularity during the 1860s.
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10. The Oregon Trail
1869, oil on canvas, 31” x 49”, The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
During his second trip out west in 1863, Bierstadt happened to see a wagon train of German
immigrants who were bound for Oregon. The Oregon Trail had once been the major route to the
Northwest, especially back in the 1840s. The Trail continued to be used long afterwards for
moving people, herds of cattle, and sheep but, by the time of this painting, some Northwest
passengers began to ride on the new Transcontinental Railroad system that was finally operating
in 1869. This faster, more comfortable mode of transportation would eventually make traveling by
wagon train obsolete.
Bierstadt depicted this wagon train scene with a Romantic sense of nostalgia that idealized the
past. He portrayed the group’s travel as a steady progression toward the dazzling light of Manifest
Destiny with their ultimate goal of reaching America’s “Promised Land” and the glory that waited
for them in the West.
Both the shaded area on the left and lighter-valued foreground on the right show interesting
details of men, cattle, horses, and wagons. The diagonal line of traveling settlers uses linear
perspective to lead the viewer into the scene, past a distant Indian village, and toward the warm
sunset and atmospheric perspective of the hazy, distant background. The reflective water in the
middle ground is a river, a resource symbolically nourishing to not only the native Indians but also
for the traveling settlers and their livestock.
This is an asymmetrical composition; the larger dark mass of trees on the left is balanced by the
more distant mountains on the right. The light source is hidden behind clouds which helps to
create a warm and dramatic scene by casting highlights on a variety of small details while
silhouetting the darker values of the trees and animals.
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11. Mt. Hood
1869, oil on canvas, 36” x 60”, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Bierstadt painted this view of Mt. Hood in his New York studio years after his second trip West in
1863. He created the illusion of depth by layering his space into a definite foreground, middle
ground, and background. Once again, Bierstadt improved on reality. This view is from the
Washington side of the Columbia River, looking south towards Multnomah Falls. However, the
side of Mt. Hood portrayed in this painting is not visible from the Washington viewpoint but shows
the western face of Mr. Hood that is seen from Portland, Oregon. By combining these two
viewpoints, however, Bierstadt not only took artistic license in his composition, but he also
improved on nature.
Dark values prevail in the foreground and many interesting details are highlighted with lightest
values from a light source hidden off to the right. Deep blue reflective water and brown hills
establish the middle ground, and an oversized Mt. Hood dominates the background. The mountain
consumes almost half of the sky with light hazy values that create great depth of space through
atmospheric perspective [where things appear lighter, hazier, and bluer the further away they are].
Were it not for the use of high contrast for the white water against the darker hills, the waterfall
would barely stand out and the details of the foreground would appear less distinct. But in this
painting, Bierstadt creatively manipulated the scene for the greatest dramatic effect by specifically
highlighting and emphasizing these important details.
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12. Multnomah Falls
Date unknown, oil on canvas, 44” x 30”, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK
This painting was likely executed after Bierstadt’s second trip out west in 1863, when he traveled
up the Columbia River and made sketches that he later used in his New York studio.
This dramatic depiction of our familiar Multnomah Falls is a remarkable combination of realism
and imagination. Note that the canvas is oriented vertically to exaggerate the height and overall
size of the waterfall. Bierstadt created this fantastic scene by carefully manipulating the space: he
made the foreground quite shallow, to bring the viewer into direct contact with a fallen tree, rocks
and the reflective waters of the stream. Details are noticeable through value contrasts that depict
the lightest sunlit values against darker values. The viewer follows the highlighted stream to the
focal area with greatest contrast—the lowest part of the Falls in the center of the canvas. Tall,
vertical lines of trees frame the Falls and symmetrically balance the painting. Our eye then follows
the strong vertical of the Falls up into the misty sky. In other paintings, Bierstadt depicted
mountains that reached to the top of the canvas; here, he gave the waterfall that same vertical
emphasis.
Although Multnomah Falls is the fourth highest waterfall in the country, the Falls’ actual size was
both heightened and exaggerated in this painting. However, Bierstadt still maintained a great deal
of realism by depicting how the water of the upper Falls actually does spray out where it hits a
rock formation about 2/3 of the way down on the right.
To create a sense of height, Bierstadt used a high horizon [where the land meets the sky] that is
located virtually at the top of the canvas. Hazy details in the top half of the painting serve to add
depth through atmospheric perspective [where things appear lighter, hazier, and bluer the further
away they are] and by diffusing the background cliff in clouds of mist. This manipulation of space
creates a romantic mood while exaggerating the size of the Falls with the best dramatic effect.
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14. Lower Yellowstone Falls
1881, oil on paper mounted on canvas, 19-1/4” x 13-1/2”,
The University of Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA
Despite many trips out west, Bierstadt did not visit the Yellowstone area until the 1880s. Once there,
he was most attracted to elements of water, such as Yellowstone’s geysers and waterfalls. Here he
portrayed the Lower Yellowstone Falls that pour into an immense valley, By raising the horizon line
nearly to the top of the painting, Bierstadt added to the sense of the great height of the falling water.
He also used this same high horizon technique for the painting, “Multnomah Falls” (Image #13. The
large, mature trees placed in the foreground help provide the viewer a sense of relative scale which
further emphasizes the immense size of the Lower Yellowstone Falls.
By the 1880s, Bierstadt’s popularity was clearly fading. When compared with other emerging art
movements, his paintings were considered to be too large, too Romantic, and simply too oldfashioned. In an effort to promote his works, however, Bierstadt reduced the size of this painting
and, except for a few minor adjustments, he created an accurate depiction of the actual scene.
Have the students look for trademark Bierstadt elements, such as:
1. a central focus (the waterfall)
2. symmetrically balanced landforms on either side
3. emphasis and drama created by value contrasts {alternating highlights and shadows)
4. a hidden light source
5. tortured trees
6. a detailed foreground
7. reflective water and
8. exotic subject matter.
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15. The Last of the Buffalo
1888, oil on canvas, 71-1/4” x 119-1/4”, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
For his last large, panoramic painting of the West, Bierstadt returned to the subject of the American
buffalo in what he considered to be one of his best paintings. Unfortunately, this painting was soon
rejected by the Paris Exposition in 1889, primarily because of its large size and because of its
romanticized subject. The Paris judges felt Bierstadt’s work no longer reflected the state of America’s
best art. Bierstadt’s artistic reputation had declined, despite the fact that many of his wealthy and loyal
patrons still wanted his large-scale paintings to fill the large spaces in their grand homes.
Although it was rejected in Paris, when back in the United States, this painting became significant, not
because of popularity, but because its subject addressed the imminent extinction of the buffalo. This
painting prompted Congress to take a census of the buffalo that still remained on the plains. The official
count came back as an alarming 541 living creatures, down from about 20 million that were estimated
to have roamed the plains just 40 years earlier. This Congressional census brought about immediate
official government protection of the species that fortunately saved the buffalo from extinction.
Ironically, the reason for the buffalo’s near demise had little to do with the native Indians. Instead, it was
the “white man” who traveled through the plains, using their rifles to kill entire herds of buffalo, just for
sport. Initially, the U.S. Government promised the Indians their hunting lands for all time, but officials
instead herded the tribes onto bleak reservation lands, taking away their very livelihood that depended
on the buffalo. This scene is Bierstadt’s romanticized vision of the decline of America’s West which
jeopardized the lives of the buffalo and Indians who had once roamed free across America’s plains.
Bierstadt’s style of layering space is evident: in the foreground are details, such as buffalo skeletons,
plant life, and even wagon wheel ruts, all depicted in sunlit highlighted values in contrast with several
huge, dark buffalo carcasses; in the middle ground, the reflective water of the river leads us into the
distance through linear perspective; the hazy low value contrast used to depict the mountains in the
distant background adds vastness, depth, and a romanticized atmosphere to the scene.
The strongest contrasts of light and dark values draw our attention to the most important focal point of
this work: the Indian on his white horse next to the charging buffalo. With this group Bierstadt depicted
the very best of what had once been American’s West. He created a nostalgic landscape to celebrate
the best of the primordial West and to immortalize a most exciting, bygone era.
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