Albert Bierstadt

In this view of rural Germany, Bierstadt evokes the sensation of soft mist rising from fields on a summer morning. Accurate draftsmanship and “truthful” rendering of natural forms were stressed in the art academies and studios of Düsseldorf, a city that attracted Bierstadt and other young American painters in the 1850s. Bierstadt applied these skills in his early artistic practice, gathering sources for his paintings by carefully sketching local activity and dress and noting distinctive effects of atmosphere and light. In later years, he applied the same acute observation to monumental renderings of the American West.