Closing of the West
Our traveling exhibition Lure of the West: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum closes in three days at the Knoxville Museum of Art!
Among more than sixty paintings and sculptures is Albert Bierstadt's Alaskan Coast Range. The stillness and perfection of Bierstadt's canvases motivated one of his contemporaries to comment on his idealized vision of nature: "It is a perfect type of idea of what our scenery ought to be, if it is not so in reality." Bierstadt often made the natural wonders of North America look more like the Alps of his native Germany, where, in fact, he sometimes produced these works. But though the artist controlled and manicured nature for the entertainment of his audience, he never diminished its grandeur and power to impress. His images were, for many Americans, the only sense they had of what lay beyond the Mississippi River.
The snowy peaks in this painting appear truly Alpine, distanced from the viewer by a wide expanse of water in the foreground. The artist gives us room to be suitably awestruck with the spectacle on the horizon. It is scenery to be appreciated from afar. We are invited to marvel at the sublime creations of nature.
Source: Amy Pastan. The Lure of the West: Treasures of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (New York and Washington, D.C.: Watson-Guptill Publications, in cooperation with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2000).
Pictured: Albert Bierstadt, 1830 Germany–1902 USA, Alaskan Coast Range, about 1889, oil on paper mounted on paperboard, 13 7/8 x 29 3/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Orrin Wickersham June.
Our traveling exhibition Lure of the West: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum closes in three days at the Knoxville Museum of Art!
Among more than sixty paintings and sculptures is Albert Bierstadt's Alaskan Coast Range. The stillness and perfection of Bierstadt's canvases motivated one of his contemporaries to comment on his idealized vision of nature: "It is a perfect type of idea of what our scenery ought to be, if it is not so in reality." Bierstadt often made the natural wonders of North America look more like the Alps of his native Germany, where, in fact, he sometimes produced these works. But though the artist controlled and manicured nature for the entertainment of his audience, he never diminished its grandeur and power to impress. His images were, for many Americans, the only sense they had of what lay beyond the Mississippi River.