Mountain Brook

His Mountain Brook, an oil on canvas, shows a lovely, tranquil woodland scene in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

If you probe deeper into the picture, you see beautiful Pine and Birch trees revelling in the soft sunshine which is reflected in the mountain stream. The painting was brought out during the Civil War, suggesting that maybe the artist wanted to depict the opposite - a retreat from the war by depicting its opposite. Nature lovers are particularly enthralled that there is a blue-and-white kingfisher sitting quietly on a tree trunk - the entire scene in total contrast to the devastation of war.

Paintings and drawings from Albert Bierstadt provide inspiration for art lovers. The German-born artist fell in love with nature, and this passion is reflected in his paintings of meadows, trees, autumn leaves changing colours, forests and mountain brooks. Born in 1830, Albert Bierstadt is a German-born American painter, lovingly remembered for his wonderful landscapes of the American West. He wasn't fully recognised in his lifetime, but today he is regarded as one of the greatest landscape artists in history.

A Touch of Envy No Doubt?

His paintings may well have sold for large sums of money, but the German-American artist wasn't held in particularly high esteem by contemporary critics. No doubt envious, it was his unusually large eye-catching canvases which dwarfed his contemporaries painting when displayed together, that caused disdain and feelings of animosity. Perhaps his contemporaries weren't happy when art-loving customers gravitated towards his paintings to adorn the walls of their mansions, paying large sums of money to acquire them.

His pictures made one feel as though you could reach into them and feel the blowing wind, touch the whitecaps dance across a wild river and smell the morning mist in the valleys. His paintings always emphasised atmospheric elements such as mist and clouds, always putting in plenty of detail to awe and inspire. When Mountain Brook was first exhibited in 1863, it was actually declared as Bierstadt's best work by critics, who remarked about the artist’s skilled contrast of shade and light. With an ability to extract the best from nature, they believe this painting has a touch of realism.