Abstract This paper discusses Albert Bierstadt's art and describes how his paintings depict the landscapes and environments of the United States West in their most idyllic and archetypal form. The paper describes some of Bierstadt's specific paintings and provides an appendix with copies of the paintings for the reader to view. The paper suggests that Bierstadt held a bombastic mentality as he profited and helped forge the New Eden image of the soon to be conquered American West.
Table of Contents:
Cultivating His Landscapes
Bierstadt's New Eden
Bierstadt as Spokesman for Manifest Destiny
From the Paper "Bierstadt was a product of his time, a true purveyor of Manifest Destiny and profiteer over the national drive westward. By all accounts, he had no evil intent nor was he a morally bad figure. It is with the aid of historical perspective that we may see how his individual works and success played a role in the paradigm of the American West. His pervasive advertisement of a New Eden was merely one part among many in the schema of mid-19th century American society and politics. Indian Canoe is a testament to the repercussions of zealotry and the dehumanization of those who stand before faith. The weight of all humanity's consciousness is heavier for it."
Abstract Romanticism began in 1789, right after the French Revolution and ended in industrialism around 1810. The Romantic era was a reaction against the neo-classical quest for order and intellectual control in artistic style. This paper examines artwork which focus on nature and the natural world. The paintings examines are Albert Bierstadt's "Lander's Peak", J.M.W. Turner's "The Slave Ship" and Frederic Edwin Church's "Rainy Season in the Tropics." The writer concludes that these paintings show good descriptions on how the Romantic period shows its love of nature.
From the Paper "The first painting I chose was Albert Bierstadt, "Lander's Peak" (1863). This painting shows beautiful detail of the landscape of the Rocky Mountains. The bottom of the painting shows the Native Americans living, working and feeding off the land. The center of the painting shows the details of the Rocky Mountains with the trees, cliffs, and the waterfalls from the river. Bierstadt even showed the lower cloud lining and the reflection of the sun off the water. The top of the painting shows even more details of the mountains at a distance with light layers of snow and clouds. The painting was drawn together with so much detail it looks like he took a picture of the landscape. He captured a great natural scene because he got the consecrate nature and the people who believed in nature are very important to survive. One thing I can not help to think about is that the painting also symbolizing how the pilgrims push the Native Americans west to take up there lands."
Discusses the lives and histories of several early American painters, including John Trumbull, John Blake White, Samuel F. B. Morse, Albert Bierstadt and Winslow Homer.
2,700 words (approx. 10.8 pages), 4 sources, 1993, $ 95.95
From the Paper "John Trumbull:
John Trumbull, a colonel in the Revolutionary War, was the son of a distinguished scholar and governor of the state of Connecticut during the revolution. In the war, Trumbull used his skills as a draftsman by drawing plans of various works in which the army was interested. After his time in the army, Trumbull went to Europe to continue his studies of painting. Beginning in 1783, he studied day and night with Benjamin West in London. Under the tutelage of West and John S. Copley he devoted himself to art as a profession (National Cyclopedia 334).
Later, Trumbull would be considered the painter of the Revolution. In his early works, he painted subjects from Greek and Roman history, but he soon abandoned these in favor of contemporary history. His first such works were "Death of ..."
Abstract The success of the American Revolution meant that the former colonists had to take on the difficult job of building a new kind of nation, with a new style of government, based on ideas about freedoms and rights that had never been tried before. The young country wanted to draw on what was best from its European heritage, but also to distinguish itself from Britain's culture which had been the principal cultural model. The paper shows that in the first century, the United States formally and informally used painting, architecture, and sculpture to carry important messages about the nature of American society and to develop styles that were distinctively American. Examples of two works from each of these branches of the arts demonstrate the variety of ways in which the country's art presented American ideals, promoted American self-confidence and developed an American character.
The works discussed are: Gilbert Stuart's painting "Vaughan Portrait" (1795); Thomas Jefferson's architectural design of the Virginia State Capitol Building (1785-99); the statue "Justice" (1824) by sculptor William Rush; Hiram Powers' bust of General Andrew Jackson (1835); Robert Mills' Treasury Building (1836-42) and Albert Bierstadt's painting "The Oregon Trail" (1869).
From the Paper "Almost as soon as the Revolution ended painters and engravers began to meet an overwhelming demand for portraits of George Washington and other leaders. In addition to being a major symbol of independence, Washington was also painted as the embodiment of "American virtue, restraint, courage, and strength--in short, of American republicanism" (Baigell 27). Gilbert Stuart, an American who trained in England, produced some of the finest and most popular versions in such paintings as George Washington or the Vaughan Portrait (1795). Stuart showed a rather "patrician and remote" Washington, partly because he trained in the aristocratic portrait tradition in England (Baigell 36). But, as Baigell notes, Stuart was a Federalist who did not approve of the growing popularity of Thomas Jefferson and his more democratic ideals. The Vaughan Portrait also reflects, therefore, "the mood of the Federalist hierarchy, fearful of runaway populism . . . and anxious to fix a national image in the minds of Americans to counter endemic localism" (Baigell 36-37)."
