Art history comparison of two works Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Art history comparison of two works - Essay Example River in the Catskills captures the effects of industrialization which was slowly but surely making its presence felt even in the bucolic landscape of the Catskill Mountains. Albert Bierstadt’s The Buffalo Trail retains much of the landscape without depicting any interference of modern life. Coles work is in contrast from his earlier work, and here we see there are no large trees to frame the picture and thus what we get is an open landscape. In the middle distance can be seen a locomotive engine and some railroad cars. In the foreground can be seen a man looking out at these modern contraptions, while beside him can be seen trees which have been cut down. Bierstadt’s painting, on the other hand, binds the attention of the viewer by the tall trees in the foreground and the beginnings of a storm which just may unleash itself at any moment. The two paintings differ from each other most pointedly in the use of color. Coles painting uses a large number of colors from the palette, while Bierstadt’s landscape is made up of muted colors, the emphasis being on the grays and browns. In Coles work there is no large tree, while the other painting shows the grandeur of nature, both by incorporating the big trees as well as the herd of buffaloes crossing the river. Thomas Cole’s River in the Catskills has confounded scholars because it â€Å"does not readily fall into an established category of landscape painting† (Wallach, Alan, June2002) but there is no doubt that it is a pastoral scene where we can see the distress of the artist at the encroachment of modernity. This painting is also more realistic, since we see the artist bringing in the idea of change that will necessarily follow whenever inventions begin to coexist in this pastoral scene. Bierstadt’s landscape is on the other hand a work in which we can see how the painter has given us an illusion of space. He achieves this by keeping the middle ground and background clear of unnecessary details and in