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A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie
Rocky Mountians beneath a thunderstorm
ArtistAlbert Bierstadt
Year1866 (1866)
TypeOil on canvas
Dimensions210.8 cm × 361.3 cm (83 in × 142.25 in)
LocationBrooklyn Museum, Brooklyn
WebsiteCollections: American Art

A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie is an 1866 landscape oil painting by German-American painter Albert Bierstadt, inspired by a trip Bierstadt took to Mount Evans, Colorado. The painting measures 210.8 × 361.3 cm (83 × 142.25 in) and is owned by and exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum.[1]

Background

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The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak, 1863. This smaller version was painted from sketches made during Bierstadt's 1859 expedition.

By the mid-19th century, the U.S. Government had begun sending surveying expeditions into the newly incorporated territories[2] of the American West. Photographers and painters joined these expeditions to document, and to become inspired by, the country’s native peoples and landscapes.[3] Albert Bierstadt ventured on at least two of these expeditions, which would inspire the bulk of his creative output.[4] On his first expedition, he joined U.S. explorer Frederick W. Lander in 1859, taking photographs of Native Americans[2] and painting field sketches of the landscape.[5] They traveled through Kansas, Nebraska,[2] and into the Wind River Range of the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming. This expedition resulted in paintings such as Sunset Light, Wind River Range of the Rocky Mountains and most notably, two works similarly titled The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak.[note 1][note 2]

A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie was born from sketches created during his second expedition to the West in 1863. The voyage would take Bierstadt through the Colorado Rocky Mountains to Salt Lake City, Utah, and into California, with stops at Lake Tahoe,[6] San Francisco, and Yosemite.[7] The expedition ended in Oregon by November 1863, and both Ludlow and Bierstadt returned to New York on 17 December.[8]

1863 Expedition

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Emigrants Crossing the Plains, 1869. This painting was probably inspired directly by the 1863 expedition.

In April 1863, Bierstadt and his friend and explorer, Fitz Hugh Ludlow, departed New York and met up with two other gentlemen[9] in Atchison, Kansas,[10] the starting point for the Overland Trail stagecoach.[11] As they proceeded through Kansas and Nebraska, Bierstadt would continuously produce sketches of the land, animals, and people around him. During this time, a fifty-wagon train of German emigrants, headed to Oregon, crossed their path,[12] which most likely inspired the paintings of emigrants on the Oregon Trail.[13] It was also during this trip through Nebraska that Bierstadt produced a series of sketches titled The Last of the Buffalo, which were possibly referenced later on for his 1888 painting of the same name.[14][note 3]

While still in the plains, the party stopped at a ranch to enjoy a buffalo hunt. Although Bierstadt did not participate,[15] he was excited to paint the hunted animals. One of the men had wounded a bull and called to Ludlow to fetch Bierstadt. Ludlow described Bierstadt's set-up: "[Bierstadt] leapt from the buggy; out came the materials of success following him, and in a trifle over three minutes from his first halt, the big blue umbrella was pointed and pitched, and he sat under it on his camp-stool, with his color-box on his knees, his brush and palette in hand, and a clean board pinned in the cover of his color-box."[16] Ludlow and two other men taunted the bull so "that [Bierstadt] may see him in action."[17]

Bierstadt is presumed (though it is unknown for sure) to have summited Mount Evans, though at the time it had no name. Bierstadt therefore named it Mount Rosa, after his mistress. Colorado Governor John Evans would later rename the peak Mount Evans.[citation needed]

Bierstadt returned to his studio in New York and, in 1866, completed his oil painting, one of many inspired by field sketches made during that trip.[9] He named the painting after his wife, Rosalie Osborne,[18] whom he had married in November 1865. Up until this point, Osborne was the wife of Fritz Hugh Ludlow.[9]

Description

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The painting depicts Native American hunter/gatherers hunting deer in the foreground.[1] A Native American encampment resides by a stream in the distance. The mountains are thrown into either sunlight or the darkness of a thunderstorm.[19] In order to increase its dramatic value, Bierstadt exaggerated the scale of the Rocky Mountains.[1]

Peering through a break in the clouds in the far distance is a snow-capped Mt. Rosalie, named after Bierstadt’s wife.[citation needed]

Upon its completion, the painting toured the United States for a year.[1] On 7 February 1866, A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mount Rosalie exhibited for one day at the Somerville Art Gallery in New York City as a benefit for the "Nursery and Child's Hospital".[20]

References

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Notes
  1. ^ This is a test[6]
  2. ^ This is test2[6]
  3. ^ Quote: "This is a test"
Bibliography
  • Hendricks, Gordon (1964). "The First Three Western Journeys of Albert Bierstadt". The Art Bulletin. 46 (3). College Art Association: 333–365. JSTOR 3048185. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  • Ludlow, Fitz Hugh (1870). The Heart of the Continent: A Record of Travel across the Plains and in Oregon with an Examination of the Mormon Principle. New York: Hurd and Houghton. Retrieved 7 April 2013.†
  • Palmquist, Peter E. (2000). Pioneer Photographers of the Far West: A Biographical Dictionary, 1840–1865. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-3883-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Wilton, Andrew (2002). American Sublime: Landscape Painting in the United States 1820–1880. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-09670-8. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)


Citations
  1. ^ a b c d "A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie". brooklynmuseum.org. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
  2. ^ a b c Wilton and Barringer 2002, p. 229.
  3. ^ Schmidt, Wilhelm A. (2007). "Second Thoughts: Landscape Painters on Survey Expeditions". Professional Surveyor Magazine. 27 (7). Flatdog Media, Inc. Archived from the original on 7 April 2013. Retrieved 7 April 2013. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  4. ^ Hendricks 1964, p. 333.
  5. ^ Palmquist and Kailbourn 2000, p. 110.
  6. ^ a b c Hendricks 1964, p. 344
  7. ^ Hendricks 1964, p. 345.
  8. ^ Hendricks 1964, p. 348.
  9. ^ a b c Palmquist and Kailbourn 2000, p. 111.
  10. ^ a b Hendricks 1964, p. 339.
  11. ^ Ludlow 1870, p. 2.
  12. ^ Ludlow 1870, pp. 110–111.
  13. ^ Hendricks 1964, p. 341.
  14. ^ Hendricks 1964, p. 342.
  15. ^ Ludlow 1870, p. 62.
  16. ^ Ludlow 1870, p. 67.
  17. ^ Ludlow 1870, p. 68.
  18. ^ "Death of Mrs. Albert Bierstadt". The New York Times. 2 March 1893. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
  19. ^ Berman, Ann E. (19 September 2002). "The Natural Wonders Of American Art". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
  20. ^ "Amusements this Evening". The New York Times. 7 February 1866. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
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