Albert Bierstadt
1830–1902 · 11 works
Albert Bierstadt became known for expansive views of the American West, but his landscapes also range from New England to the Alps. Born in Germany and raised in Massachusetts, he returned to Europe for training before traveling west in 1859. Drawn from study and reshaped through imagination, his paintings offered distant places to viewers who might never visit them. Mountain Brook shows that an intimate setting could receive the same dramatic treatment as a panorama. Contrasts of light and shadow make a path through rocks and water feel like an event.
11 works · 1863–1890
Compare Mountain Brook with a broad mountain view. How does Bierstadt lead you from the shaded foreground toward the light?
Asher Brown Durand
The Honourable William Paulding, 1826
Frederic Edwin Church
Storm in the Mountains, 1847
Sanford Robinson Gifford
Cows in a Pond at Sunset, 1860
