by: Virginia Dweck and Rose Douek
In our analysis of A Storm in the Rocky Mountains by Albert Bierstadt, we discussed the formal properties and how they made us feel as well as the substance and story told by the work of art. We did not, however, discuss the historical context of the painting or why it was found in the Brooklyn Museum. This painting was completed in 1886 as an embodiment of Manifest Destiny, a prominent cultural idea in America at the time. Beirstadt had traveled to Colorado to study the landscape and make sketches in 1863 and then had come back to his studio in New York to do the actual painting. What is interesting about it is that he didn’t paint exactly what he saw, but rearranged the landmarks and changed their proportions to maximize the visual image of the landscape.
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