View of Moat Mountain, Intervale, New Hampshire

View of Moat Mountain, Intervale, New Hampshire is an American landscape painting that dates from circa 1862. It was created by Albert Bierstadt and now resides within the Currier Museum of Art, in the same state.

In front of us here we discover several mountains raising in stages into the background. They are covered in green foliage, unlike many of the artists's other depictions of mountainous regions across the US. Behind at the very back are some aggressive cloud formations which sweep past at speed. In the nearer foreground we find many smaller trees dotted around fairly evenly, all with dark green foliage, and relatively little else colour. There is also a small stream which makes its way down the left hand side of the painting, but not in the normally dominant fashion that Bierstadt would usually deliver water features such as this. Here he is entirely focused on the surrounding mountains and allows them to dominate over all else. He allows light to flood across the centre horizontal of the composition, but leaves most of the rest of the painting in the shade, setting the mood of an everchanging environment which would have looked differently even in the short time that he would have been sat there sketching it.

The artist travelled all across the country in search of different environments to capture within his work. He would normally sketch in person, before returning to the safe environment of his studio. It was here that he could set up huge canvases and devote hours upon hours to producing extraordinary detail in every part of his paintings. He loved to express himself, taking reality and perfecting it, or so he thought. Some rejected this approach, but most loved the beautiful nature of his paintings which became all the more powerful when he worked with the larger canvases. Today the best works are on show in major art galleries all across the country.

This painting can today be found in the Currier Museum of Art which is based in Manchester, New Hampshire, USA. Visitors to this recently expanded venue will find many of the greatest names from European and American art and architecture featured here, including the likes of Picasso, Matisse, Monet, O'Keeffe, Calder, John Singer Sargent and Frank Lloyd Wright. The collection is carefully organised around some charming display areas and attempts have been made to make the collection as varied as possible, both in terms of style and also the period in which each artwork was created. Although View of Moat Mountain, Intervale, New Hampshire is not the most famous painting produced by Bierstadt, it does hold a great significance to the local area and is also still a stunning landcape painting in its own right.