Focus on The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak and discuss the Composition and theme.
The painting shows Lander's Peak, a mountain with a summit of 10,456 feet (3,187 m) in the Wyoming Range in modern-day Wyoming. The peak was named after Frederick W. Lander on Bierstadt's initiative, after Lander's death in the Civil War. In one description of the painting, "Sharply pointed granite peaks and fantastically illuminated clouds float above a tranquil, wooded genre scene." The foreground is dominated by the campsite of a tribe of Native Americans. The landscape in the painting is not the actual landscape as it appears at Lander's Peak but rather an ideal landscape based on nature, altered by Bierstadt for dramatic effect.Bierstadt's painting hit a nerve with contemporary Americans by portraying the grandeur and pristine beauty of the nation's western wilderness. It was a reference to the idea of Manifest Destiny, where the Rocky Mountains represented both natural beauty and an obstacle to westward expansion. In the words of historian Anne F. Hyde: "Bierstadt painted the West as Americans hoped it would be, which made his paintings vastly popular and reinforced the perception of the West as either Europe or sublime Eden." At the same time, the Native Americans in the foreground gave the scene authenticity and presented it as a timeless place, untouched by European hands.
Frederick W. Lander Wyoming Range landscape Rocky Mountains Manifest Destiny Lander's Peak Wyoming Civil War