Bierstadt

Mount St. Helens, Columbia River, Oregon by Albert Bierstadt (1889)

45.72 x 81.92 cm (18 in × 32 1/4 in)

American Romanticism

Albert Bierstadt was a German-born American painter who specialized in romantic depictions of nature. He is known particularly for his idealistic imagery of the western regions of the United States of America. His paintings exhibit the power, beauty, and majesty of the raw and untamed landscapes of the West.

Mount St. Helens, Columbia River, Oregon is an example of Bierstadt’s mature style — a beautiful view of a magnificent but not necessarily realistic vista. Mount Saint Helens, a volcano located in the present-day American State of Washington, did not look like this when Bierstadt saw it. Its shape was more dome-like, but a rounded peak would not give this painting its power. It wouldn’t provide the visual and artistic interest that this myth provides. For Bierstadt, beauty was more important than reality. In your mind’s eye, change the mountain to its more natural smooth dome-shape. Notice how the view and the experience changes.

Mount St. Helens before its 1980 eruption showing its dome-like shape

The foreground is a high hillside covered with thick, green foliage with deer lounging peacefully in the tall grass. Tall trees, just beginning to change color in early autumn, frame the picture on the left. A blue sky contrasts with the orange leaves and makes the trees glow. Although blue and orange are opposite colors, the tension is softened by the greenish-yellow grass, creating a peaceful and relaxing view.

About midway up the slope, two deer lounge in the grass. They are tiny and blend into the landscape. For me, animals have the potential to dominate landscape art because they have more energy and life and are more dynamic lifeforms than plants. They can pull in a viewer’s focus. I think Bierstadt realized this and kept the deer small, blending them into their surroundings. Why not just leave them out then if they are that overpowering? Because the deer also “finish” the landscape. In your mind’s eye, remove the deer. Doesn’t the painting seem empty and incomplete? In this type of open and wild landscape, I expect some animals to be roaming around. It would feel “off” otherwise. To me, these two tiny animals lying on a hillside “finish” the piece.

Near the vertical center of the work, the tone suddenly shifts. The calm green on the left drops off suddenly, revealing the purple and white of the background. Notice there is no middle ground. Bierstadt’s focus is now on the volcano, and he composes the foreground in a way where it drops like a curtain to reveal it. The hill and trees fall down the edge and fade until they are cut off by the bottom frame. The foothills in the bottom center and right are covered in a thin fog that blurs details. Because I cannot see where the foreground ends and the background begins, scale is distorted. How far are we from this mountain? How big is it really? The foothills are just large patches of color and shape that are stacked gently on top of each other. Then, suddenly, Mount Saint Helens rises in the background.

So far, the lines and shapes in this painting have been relaxed, curvy, and horizontal, but in the mountain, they switch to angular and aggressively vertical. The ridges on Mount Saint Helens’ slope, lit up by the early morning sun, lead my eye up to its peak. The bright white cap draws my eye away from the foothills below. The sharp highlights and shadows give the mountain a craggy, sharp, volcanic texture, which contrasts against the rest of the painting.

The ridges that define the volcano’s slopes don’t go straight up though. They rise in a slight right-hand spiral that, to me, resembles a girl’s twirling skirt. This creates an energy that conflicts with the tranquility of the rest of the work. When combined with the bright white top, it energizes the peak and focuses my attention there. Even though the left foreground is brighter and has more detail and definition, my eye has a hard time leaving the mountain to take in the rest of the view. It was known that Mount Saint Helens was an active volcano (it erupted in 1857). I think Bierstadt painted it as a powerful, living presence that looms in the background of this idyllic scene.

For me, the knowledge of the volcano’s devastating 1980 explosion adds another layer to Mount St. Helens, Columbia River, Oregon. Bierstadt wanted the viewer to feel the energy radiating from the volcano. When I look at this painting in 2024, I don’t just feel it in an abstract or metaphorical way. What Bierstadt implied is very real and it’s spectacular.

This work is cared for by private collectors.