Module 5 Artwork Analyisis

Albert Bierstadt, Among the Sierra Nevada, California, 1868, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Helen Huntington Hull, granddaughter of William Brown Dinsmore, who acquired the painting in 1873 for "The Locusts," the family estate in Dutchess County, New York, 1977.107.1 This beautiful painting was done by Albert Bierstadt in the 1860s. The subject of this painting was the Sierra Nevada in California. Most of his paintings were of the spectacular views of the frontiers [1]. It uses an array of earth tones, blues, grays, and whites to create a realistic landscape portrait. The vast mountains have a haze of gray and blue to them to really showcase the distance in perspective to the deer in the foreground. There is a still lake that is framed by the distant rocky cliffs, the mountains that reach the clouds, and the wild trees. Gorgeous waterfalls flow into the small lake and barely displace the water, causing almost no movement from the current. This allows for the reflection of the surrounding scenery to sit upon it. The lighting of the painting is what sets the tone for this piece as this essential element provokes the feeling of peacefulness. Sun rays can be seen coming through an intensely clouded sky which illustrates the imaginative perfection of the mountains and lake. The sun’s rays break through the clouds shining rays down onto the clouds, waterfalls, and lake. This gives the scene an almost heavenly look which represented the natural beauty of the American west and served to reinforce the idea of Manifest Destiny via moving westward toward the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. The rays also create a movement across the painting as your eye follows the light from the clouds above to the reflections of it in the waterfalls to the grass that almost glows in the bottom right. The brush strokes in this painting are almost not visible which shows an incredible amount of skill with oil paint. The surface appears to be smooth which makes the painting seem as if it is a photograph with the level of realism it has. There are meticulous amounts of detail in everything except perhaps the clouds that are more imaginative. The yellow hues make the painting feel warm and inviting which adds to the idealized view of nature the painting gives.