Collections: American Art

Albert Bierstadt (American, b. Germany, 1830–1902). A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie, 1866. Oil on canvas, 83 x 142 1/4 in. (210.8 x 361.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, Healy Purchase Fund B, Frank L. Babbott Fund, A. Augustus Healy Fund, Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund, Carll H. de Silver Fund, Charles Stewart Smith Memorial Fund, Caroline A.L. Pratt Fund, Frederick Loeser Fund, Augustus Graham School of Design Fund, Museum Collection Fund, Special Subscription, and the John B. Woodward Memorial Fund; Purchased with funds given by Daniel M. Kelly and Charles Simon; Bequest of Mrs. William T. Brewster, Gift of Mrs. W. Woodward Phelps in memory of her mother and father, Ella M. and John C. Southwick, Gift of Seymour Barnard, Bequest of Laura L. Barnes, Gift of J.A.H. Bell, and Bequest of Mark Finley, by exchange, 76.79

In 1863, Albert Bierstadt made an arduous expedition to Colorado in order to gather studies of the region for this monumental painting, executed three years later in his New York studio. For the final canvas, he exercised artistic license—rearranging some landmarks and exaggerating the scale of others—to maximize the visual interest of this Rocky Mountain landscape. The picture toured the country on a yearlong exhibition and thrilled audiences with its dual effects of sublime grandeur and reportorial detail. Soaring peaks, expansive valleys, and turbulent weather conditions create a dramatic backdrop for the meticulously detailed flora and a Native American hunting scene in the foreground. Mt. Rosalie (now Mt. Evans) appears in spotlight within a ring of dark clouds in the upper left corner of the composition. Bierstadt established his artistic reputation with "Great Pictures" of the American West that embodied the national agenda of expansionism known as Manifest Destiny.