Inspired by the grandeur of the Rockies and the Alps, American and European artists strove to capture their power in paint.
Patricia Mainardi is Professor Emeritus of 18th and 19th Century European Art,.
Tricia Laughlin Bloom is Curator of American Art at the Newark Museum.
About the Author: Katherine Manthorne is Professor of Modern Art of the Americas, Doctoral Program in Art History, Graduate Center, City University of New York.
Each essay explores the close connections among these artists and diverse layers of symbolism these mountain images carried, revealing how the same landscape paintings that became archetypal symbols of American identity were in fact the product of a dialogue between American and European artists.
The Rockies and the Alps features contributions by four outstanding scholars who investigate how geology, flora and fauna, and social and literary contexts relate to the rise of alpine landscape painting.
Kensett, and photographers Carleton Watkins and Eadweard Muybridge.
Turner, John Ruskin, painters of the Hudson River School Thomas Cole, Worthington Whittredge, and John F.
M.
W.
Their contemporaries included J.
Two key figures highlighted are Swiss painter Alexandre Calame (1810-1864), frequently identified with Alpine views of torrents, glaciers, and gorges, and Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), whose impressive canvases often provided American audiences with their first glimpse of the Rockies and the western frontier.
This richly illustrated volume brings together dazzling depictions of the Rockies and the Alps, while examining the dialogue between artists who visited and recorded these geographically distant ranges.
Artistic interests coincided with the rise of tourism, as improved transportation and accommodations made Mountains and glaciers more accessible.
Landscapes of soaring peaks and spectacular vistas became increasingly popular in the mid-nineteenth century, when photographers, scientists, and armchair travelers were awakening to these wonders.
Inspired by the grandeur of the Rockies and the Alps, American and European artists strove to capture their power in paint
