The American West Through Art Learning to see history in a different way

Albert Bierstadt (American, born Germany, ) Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite, c Oil on canvas, 36 1/8 x 26 3/8 in. (91.7 x 67.0 cm.) Purchased with funds from the North Carolina Art Society (Robert F. Phifer Bequest) and various donors, by exchange, 87.9 German-born Albert Bierstadt gave definitive expression to America’s westward expansionism in the 1860s and 70s. His vast panoramas of the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains introduced Americans to a majestic wilderness, awesome but unthreatening, and well worth possessing..

Thomas Cole (American, born Great Britain, ) For Thomas Cole, landscape painting was more than the depiction of scenery. Through his paintings of the vast American wilderness, the artist hoped to stir the viewer to contemplate the purity and promise of the "New World". This small painting dates from the early years of Cole's career when the largely self-taught painter was first exploring the dramatic possibilities of landscape art. The composition is based on studies made in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. It presents a romantic vision of primeval nature, its wildness-and Americanness- further heightened by the presence of Native Americans in the middle distance. That Cole intended such paintings as visible sermons is amply born out in his poetry. Writing in the same year as the painting, he implored: O may the voice of music that so chime With the wild mountain breeze and rippling lake Ne'er wake the soul but to a keener sense Of nature's beauties.

Romantic Landscape, c Oil on panel, Purchased with funds from the State of North Carolina,

Jasper Francis Cropsey (American, ) Jasper Cropsey's depiction of backwoods America celebrates the romantic myth of frontier life, but with little regard to the often harsh reality. Derived from sketches made in the White Mountains of northern New Hampshire, the painting shows a newly cleared farm with a young family going about the morning chores. The precariousness of the family's existence is perhaps implied by the dark, encircling forest and by the gaunt pair of dead trees, whose shadows fall across the cabin. Yet, the scene does not beg our pity or concern, but rather our admiration for the courage and resourcefulness of these pioneers. By their industry the forest will surrender to fields and pasture: livestock graze, grain awaits cutting and stacking, while cabbage, corn, and pumpkins ripen in the garden. In the foreground, a newly laid corduroy (or log) road promises an end to the valley's isolation.

Eagle Cliff, Franconia Notch, New Hampshire, 1858 Oil on canvas, 23 15/16 x 38 7/8 in. (60.8 x 98.8 cm.) Purchased with funds from the State of North Carolina,