Encampment with Canoes (from Sketchbook) 1890

Albert Bierstadt made this sketchbook page with graphite on paper sometime in the 19th century. The stark white of the paper is contrasted by the subtle range of grays achieved by the graphite. The artist used the pencil to create a study of a camp scene, complete with canoes and foliage. The quickly-sketched lines give a sense of immediacy. This work is, at its heart, about the process of observation and recording, and the way that the artist perceived the landscape before him. The relative ease with which sketches like this could be made and transported fueled the popular appetite for landscape imagery at this time. The artist's hand, moving swiftly across the paper, translates the grand scale of the American West into an intimate, portable format. It's a reminder that even in the age of mass production, the individual act of making remains central to our understanding of the world.