Art Analysis: Seals By Albert Bierstadt

Albert Bierstadt’s “Seals” - Bierstadt organizes the painting in such a way that the two seals are the center and focus. The background of ice, water, sky, and rock are important and help create the feel of the painting, but the landscape is of secondary importance compared to the animals. When I compare this landscape to the vast majority of his other paintings, it seems almost barren and dead. Despite this, in the focus of the painting we see that there is life, young life at that. He gives the landscape the desolate feeling through his use of shadow and light. The fog and clouds block the beams of sunlight making the background hazy and dim, while the rocks and glaciers cast shadows in to the water. Bierstadt’s painting looks incredibly