Mission (Warnock?): Landscape with Mountains and Foreground Trees (from Sketchbook)
1890
Medium
Graphite on wove paper
Dimensions
4 3/4 x 7 3/4 in. (12.1 x 19.7 cm)
Classification
Drawing
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Marguerite H. Rohlfs, 1995
Accession Number
1995.379.4q verso
Tags
Art Historical Context
Albert Bierstadt, a leading figure of the Hudson River School and master of luminous American landscapes, created this intimate graphite sketch in 1890, late in his illustrious career. Titled *Mission (Warnock?): Landscape with Mountains and Foreground Trees (from Sketchbook)*, it captures the artist's keen eye for the majestic American wilderness—towering mountains rising behind a foreground of sturdy trees. At just 4 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches, this petite drawing on wove paper reveals Bierstadt's on-the-spot fieldwork, a crucial step in his process of translating rugged Western vistas into grand st...
About the Artist
Albert Bierstadt · 1830–1902
Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) was a German-American landscape painter renowned for his monumental, luminous depictions of the American West. As a prominent member of the second generation of the Hudson River School and the Rocky Mountain School, Bierstadt created sweeping panoramas that captured the sublime grandeur of untamed wilderness with unprecedented theatrical scale and romantic vision. His ...