Rocky Mountain Big Horns 

Albert Bierstadt, sometime in the late 19th century, created this work of oil on canvas. With a practiced hand, Bierstadt lays down thin layers of paint in the academic style; landscape painting was his stock-in-trade. Note how this Rocky Mountain scene, a rugged vista where the artist himself never set foot, is carefully composed. The foreground is sharply defined, while the background dissolves into atmospheric perspective. This was achieved through layering and blending of paint. Look closely and you can see how the artist has varied the paint application from thick impasto in the foreground to thin glazes in the distance. Bierstadt and other artists like him sold an image of the American West to Eastern elites who would likely never travel there. Paintings like this were commodities, a way to consume the idea of the West without dealing with its harsh realities. This picture should remind us of the human labor that goes into even the most seemingly natural landscape.