Albert Bierstadt’s “Among the Sierra Nevada, California”
Viewing a fair bit of art this weekend brought to mind my unblogged experience at a couple of museums in Washington DC this summer.
The take-the-cake prize went to Albert Bierstadt’s Among the Sierra Nevada, California (1868; at the Smithsonian American Art Museum). Bierstadt himself was of interest to me. The little plaque near the painting read (in part): "Bierstadt was an immigrant and a hardworking entrepreneur who had grown rich pairing his artistic skill with a talent for self-promotion." I think "skill" and "talent" are hugely mundane words to describe this man’s artistic achievement, even in this one painting.
But to the painting itself: All I can really say is, none of the images online come near to doing justice to this painting. And that is not art-snob hyperbole, I swear. Viewed personally, the painting literally made me cry, it was so knock-me-over beautiful and enrapturing. Not even the 1400-pixel image linked above begins to capture the glittering water, the minute detail of the elk, the majesty of the rocky crags, or the radiance of the snowy mountains, which are so washed out as to be nearly invisible in these online images. It’s a painting of light, color, majesty, awe, benevolence, and heady inspiration, and I don’t see that in these online images. All I can say is go, go, go! see the painting for yourself. Let it encircle you, transport you, dazzle you, uplift you.
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