Albert Bierstadt ~ Mount Hood, Muybridge and Colescott

This week of Albert Bierstadt started with Arcy Douglass' Artist Talk about Bierstadt's Mount Hood at the Portland Art Museum on December 10. He mentioned that Bierstadt had dabbled in photography (box camera, glass plate, albumen print variety). Earlier I had read that Bierstadt's two brothers were photographers. Considering that I've been accused of spending far too much time on the internet, I felt compelled to search for some photographs of or by Bierstadt while on location. Imagine my surprise when I found this brightly colored image of a painting by Warrington Colescott – 1872: Edward Muybridge photographs Albert Bierstadt painting Yosemite Valley. Colescott (Robert Colescott's older brother) painted this watercolor in 1993.

Check out the photo on the left. It was taken by Edward Muybridge, the famous English photographer, while both he and Albert Bierstadt were in Yosemite in 1872. Bierstadt had busied himself painting Bridal Veil Falls, Nevada Falls and many other oil sketches of the Yosemite Valley. Muybridge had taken photos of Yosemite, the Indians who were there at the time and Bierstadt. Further searching turned up websites that contained more photos from Muybridge's trip to Yosemite. The photos make an interesting documentary and show that the Paiute Native American Indiams were inhabiting Yosemite in 1872, contrary to the information from the National Park Service. You can read more about this difference of opinion between the Paiute and the National Park Service here and here and here. I always thought it was the Miwok, but then I had visited Yosemite and looked at the National Park Service presentations.

Note: Check the Comments for remarks by Voice from the Couch.

Albert Bierstadt ~ Mount Hood, Yosemite and Blueberry Hill

During Arcy Douglass' Artist Talk at the Portland Art Museum about Albert Bierstadt's Mount Hood on December 10, Douglass mentioned that the USPS had included one of Albert Bierstadt's painting as part of a commemorative stamp series entitled "American Treasures". That comment drove me to the internet to find out which painting. The painting they chose Looking Down Yosemite Valley, California serves to trigger in each of us who has seen Yosemite our own memories of that incredibly beautiful valley. Bierstadt had travelled west to experience Yosemite in person after having seen Carlton Watkins photographs. He spent seven weeks in the area and fell under its spell, painting Looking Down Yosemite Valley, California in 1865. At nearly 5 x 8 feet, the painting is typical of Bierstadt's style. The Picturing America website has this to say about Bierstadt and Yosemite.

Bierstadt possessed an uncanny understanding of what Americans in his time wanted to believe was waiting for them on the western frontier: a Garden of Eden blessed by God, untouched by civil war, and holding the promise of a new beginning. His romantic paintings embody the collective hope that a remote landscape could heal a nation’s wounds. The preservationist (and Sierra Club founder) John Muir, Bierstadt’s near-contemporary, affirmed the idea that the Yosemite Valley could refresh the spirit: “The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy,” he promised prospective tourists, “while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”

How you might ask could all of this be linked to Blueberry Hill? The internet is truly a seamless web. It turns out that not only was Bierstadt's Yosemite Valley painting included as part of the USPS commemorative stamp series but it was also included as part of a scene in Terry Gilliam's 1995 film "Twelve Monkeys", accompanied by several doctors singing Blueberry Hill. The list of vocal artists who have sung that song is quite long and includes Gene Autry, Elvis Presley, Elton John, and the Rolling Stones. One of my favorites is by Bruce Cockburn and can be listened to here in his slowed down version with Margo Timmins, the lead vocalist of the Canadian band Cowboy Junkies.