A Storm in the Rocky Mountains

A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Albert Bierstadt, 1863

The painting below is called A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie by Albert Bierstadt, painted in 1863. The 2D  painting was made by using oils on a canvas. The style of the art work is representational due to the subject of the painting. Bierstadt captures mountain peaks, valleys, and the top of Mt. Rosalie (now known as Mt. Evans).  The depiction of this landscape automatically makes this painting natural and real; therefore, representational. According to the paintings description, the stormy weather conditions creates a dramatic but perfect backdrop for the detailed flora and a Native American hunting scene in the foreground. The artist also rearranged landmarks and exaggerated the scale of others to get this as a final painting. By doing so he gave us a new relative size of the landscape.

            To give this painting the natural look, Bierstadt used Primary and Secondary colors. The primary color blue is used when painting the sky. When giving the sky a stormy look, the artist went from a black (could even possibly be a navy blue) to more of a lighter blue and white to create that stormy perception. He gives off that same color pattern of blue if you look at the body of water that is below the stormy clouds and the base of the mountains within the background. The secondary color he uses the most is green of course. You can see the different shades of green used through-out the painting from the trees to the grass. The value of green is based on where the stormy clouds were placed within the painting giving off that dark green color due to no light hitting that part of the landscape. Then there are those spots in the painting where the sunlight is hitting the landscape giving it that lighter green perception.