Albert Bierstadt And The Oregon Trail: Romanticism Movement

During the 19th century Romanticism era, Albert Bierstadt was one of the most influential painters brought into this time. Bierstadt best known for his paintings that took place in the later 1800s that predominantly consisted of the landscapes of the American West. Although Bierstadt was not the first painter to record these sites, he was the one painter who had people look forward to his own version of these paintings. In the 1860s, Bierstadt went west for the first time and it would change his life as well as the lives of others that got the chance to experience his paintings and sketches. One artwork of his in particular was titled “The Oregon Trail” (1869). This painting was taken place during The Oregon Trail as Bierstadt sketched and
painted the emigrants, animals, and wagons being lugged across hundreds of miles just so these people can try and find land to live and settle on. Comparing Bierstadt’s ideas and forms of art to the Romanticism Era can basically go hand in hand. Romanticism is a style of art and literature in the late 18th, early 19th century that emphasized the passion and imaginations of people, animals, scenery, etc. This all compares to Bierstadt’s work, especially The Oregon Trail because Bierstadt really seizes the emotion of these people has they walked hundreds of miles in the blazing heat just to support their families and make something out of them selves. Bierstadt was notorious for making viewers feel the same way he did as he was capturing these moments in plain site. Bierstadt was very successful in doing just that. Being a part of the Romantic Cultural Movement is something to be excited about. Being an important part of the Romanticism Era is something to be proud of. Albert Bierstadt was an important part in this Era as well as the Cultural Movement. As many critics did not like how Bierstadt put his thoughts on the canvas, Bierstadt did not really care. Making dozens of paintings not changing a single thing about his technique and the way he did his paintings and the methods that he used. In an article about Bierstadt and other 19th century painters, critics only had negative judgments about Bierstadt’s paintings, one being, “…when some critics said they dislike the way that Bierstadt put on paint, they appear to have been criticizing his manner of representation—they were saying he was not good enough at putting paint on canvas to make a successful illusion of the object represented” (Mayer and Myers, 62). With Bierstadt getting tortured by words for most of his career, he had the drive to be one of the best painters during the Romanticism Era and he lucratively did just that. Bierstadt’s methods were methods that no other painter really had any skill with before. Albert painted in extremely thin layers, and in some places Albert increased the transparency of the paint so it may allow some of the under layers in the painting to be shown more visibly then they were before. This is what made it hard for critics to understand what he was trying to do with all of his paintings. Bierstadt tries to capture every moment, every tear in his painting, every reaction is caught and put down on a canvas and some people did not appreciate that. Bierstadt is an important part to this Cultural Movement because he showed individuals that anything is possible when putting it on a canvas. He captured Romanticism at its finest and really captured the moments as he did in The Oregon Trail (1869). The Oregon Trail is a piece of work that relates directly toward Romanticism.
Why does it? Because the emotion that Bierstadt put into this painting is the amount of passion you need for any line of work. Bierstadt when finished made viewers appreciate what it means to be those type of people and what those people have to go through day in and day out. These spectators could understand all of that by looking at a painting on a canvas. The meaning of Romanticism as said earlier is the emphasis of emotions and imagination has in literature and art. Bierstadt explained this perfectly by the way the animals and people are walking, to the sky and the sunlight that is beating down on them. The different colors mixed in the painting to give it this look of standing there as one and Bierstadt is presenting in this painting that these emigrants are all staying as one group no matter what. As Bierstadt headed out west and took in these historical moments, he had many things to say about his time but one thing to say about The Oregon Trail, “Every wagon was a gem of an interior such as no Fleming ever put on canvas, and every group a genre piece for Boughton. The whole picture of the train was such a delight in form, color, and spirit, that I could have lingered near it all the way to Kearny” (Hendricks, 342). This explains Bierstadt’s love for people and scenery. A perfect example of Idealization, the emotion and the imagination as Bierstadt’s covers this historic
moment.

The Oregon Trail (1869) - Albert Bierstadt Albert Bierstadt was a man with a gift.
As anyone can see above he clearly changed the way people paint and the way people think about a painting. Albert aspired the viewers to notice the detail he puts into his paintings because in every one he gives the observer a message that we could take with us the rest of our lives (i.e. never give up and always strive for greatness, etc.). When you analyze Bierstadt’s painting’s folks and different scholars look at the attention to detail he gives by enhancing layer upon layer to his paintings and how Bierstadt paints with such passion. In the above painting The Oregon Trail (1869) you can see the feeling from the people, animals, and even the sunlight and trees. Bierstadt wants us to view and understand what these people had to go through just from looking at a painting. The way Bierstadt caught every moment is pure art. During the Romanticism time nobody would be able to paint and really seize a flash of time quite like Bierstadt could. He was the painter of the Romanticism era; everything he has done has shown true emotion. Toward the end of his career, critics were skeptical on when Bierstadt was going to arise to the top once again, but he never did. Still to this day people are writing different blurbs in magazines and such about Bierstadt, “The most fatal flaw of the catalogue, (and of the exhibition that it represents) is that it makes Bierstadt look like a mediocre artist, which I for one do not believe he is” (Stebbins,
Jr., 91). The piece of art can represent the Romantic Cultural Movement in many ways, one being, that this painting shows more emotion that any painting I have seen before. The depth and description that Bierstadt goes through to complete this artwork is beyond anything audiences have seen before. The passion that these travelers are feeling on their horses and in their wagons, he shows us all. Bierstadt displays through one painting what it was like to be one of those travelers during that time period. The Oregon Trail (1869) as well as any other pieces of artwork of his should be represented in the Romantic Cultural Movement. Bierstadt was always carful of the work he had done, a quote from an article written by Dare Myers Hartwell, “…Bierstadt was both concerned and knowledgeable about the preservation of paintings, and in fact, the canvases, even extremely large ones, that he mounted on panel-back stretchers often still do not require lining after more than 100 years, testifying at least to the efficacy of panel-back stretchers” (39). Bierstadt was a man that cared for each and everything that he has done. He is the meaning of the Romantic Era especially with the work he has done. Bierstadt was a artist during the Romanticism Era that everyone looked up at. He was a huge role model as well as a great painter. The landscape paintings that he has done abundant times in his career have simply been indescribable. The way Bierstadt captures a certain flash of time is unbearable to say the least. Bierstadt did not get many great reviews in his time due to the fact that his method and the way he did his landscape paintings did not relate to other painters during the Romanticism Era. Bierstadt did not just paint though, he in fact made painting into a lifestyle that we can all take interest in. He changed the Romantic Cultural Movement simply because of the emotion he brought to viewers eyes every time he would finish a piece of work. Bierstadt was and still is an influence, and he will never be forgotten.

Works Cited
Hartwell, Dare Myers. "Bierstadt 's Late Paintings: Methods, Materials, and Madness." JSTOR. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.
Hendricks, Gordon. "The First Three Western Journeys of Albert Bierstadt." JSTOR. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.
Mayer, Lance, and Gay Myers. "Bierstadt and Other 19th-Century American Painters in Context." JSTOR. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.
Stebbins, Theodore E., and Jr. "The Bierstadt Exhibition and Catalogue." JSTOR. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.