The Beautiful Delusion of Albert Bierstadt
Albert Bierstadt did not paint the American West as it was. He painted the American West as wealthy East Coast buyers desperately wanted it to be. The year was 1863 and the country was tearing itself apart in the bloodiest days of the Civil War. People needed a beautiful lie to stare at. Bierstadt delivered a massive one.
He stretched a canvas over ten feet wide and built a Frankenstein monster of a landscape. He took dozens of isolated sketches from his travels and stitched them together to create a soaring alpine utopia that never actually existed anywhere on earth.
Geologists and scientists took one look at those craggy summits and laughed. They recognized the exaggerated peaks as strictly European. The art critics and the kingmakers did not care at all. They saw the dramatic golden light pouring through the valley and lost their minds.
When The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak debuted at the Tenth Street Studio Building in New York it was an absolute spectacle. Bierstadt slapped an astronomical twenty five thousand dollar price tag on it in 1865 and he got exactly what he asked for.
Look closely at the bottom of the canvas. The peaceful Shoshone camp sitting under the glowing mountains was pure nostalgic fiction. It was a calculated move designed to comfort Easterners. They wanted the romance of indigenous life without the brutal reality of westward expansion. Bierstadt knew exactly what he was selling them. He packaged the wild frontier into a pristine theatrical stage set. He sold them a massive beautiful delusion painted in oil.
References
Anderson, Nancy K. Albert Bierstadt Art and Enterprise. New York, Hudson Hills Press, 1990.
Ferber, Linda S. The Hudson River School Nature and the American Vision. New York: New-York Historical Society, 2009.
