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Albert Bierstadt
(American, 1830 - 1902)
View Near Spouting Rock
ca. 1857-1858
8 3/4 × 10 in. (22.2 × 25.4 cm)
2016.11.3
Richard M. Scaife Bequest, 2015
One of the most renowned of the Hudson River School group of painters, Albert Bierstadt was born in Germany, immigrated with his family to America as a child, and then returned to Europe to study painting in Dusseldorf. Shortly after moving back to the United States in 1857, he was part of a government survey expedition to the West, during which he completed numerous plein air sketches. Back in New York at the Tenth Street Studio, he used these to create the large-scale, panoramic paintings that cemented his reputation. Like many of his Hudson River School brethren, Bierstadt traveled frequently, including throughout New York State and New England. This painting depicts an iconic tourist site in Newport. Here, through patches of clouds, Bierstadt reflected the sky onto the surf—the light picking out the crests of waves, including the one breaking against Spouting Rock. By suffusing the scene with rose-colored light and by depicting the boats at full sail, Bierstadt conveys the sensual as well as the visual aspects of the scene.
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