A World of Art

This realistic but fantasy type painting was painted in 1863 by Albert Bierstadt. Albert Bierstadt was a German-American artist that painted mostly landscapes of the American West. Albert was involved on many journeys of the Westward Expansion after the American Civil War. Most of his paintings were very detailed telling stories with his enhanced knowledge of luminism. In the painting The Rocky Mountains you can clearly see that the sky is luminated and within the luminism is a dreamy looking Rocky Mountains. This painting was not meant to resemble reality but just to show off a beautiful landscape. The Matterhorn set in the luminism makes it look so far away but so close. With the light coming down to connect to the waterfall at the base of the incline to the mountain range makes the Matterhorn seem closer. It almost seems as if the painting were cut in half, part dream and part reality. The lower part of the painting is filled with western colors of browns, dark green, and tan a true western theme with out gaudiness. There is an Indian tribe that has settled here, in the plains. The Indian tribe is going about their everyday lives. Kids are playing, hunters are on horses, and even some of the women are preparing a deer for a feast. What I find odd is that the tribe in perspective to the painting is so small. It is almost like they are not to be noticed. To me, the artist is trying to state that humans are just smaller entities to a grander scheme.

I don't find this to be a painting that I would hang on my walls but it is a painting that make you think about the scale of Earth's greatest landscapes. I can imagine lying on the grass in the plains area of the painting and staring up at the mountains, in a day dream. It would be a great place to take a nap and listen to the waterfall in the background.