Art as wilderness

Bierstadt the painter must have gone into Yellowstone Park from the Gallatin/Gardiner side.

Imagine the scene, 1870 or so: the painter on his horse, undoubtedly with a guide, a pack team carrying his sketchbooks, oils,
palettes provisions etc. wandering the Rockies for scenes to paint.

The place can be insufferable, as those who've spent any real time in the mountains know. Snow in August is possible, for instance. Winds up to 70 mph. Sudden storms, thunder and lightening. The grizzly population so lush no endangered species act necessary.

Tough art these men made--Bierstadt, a German-American, Carl Rungius, Russell, Remington and a few others. Many kept studios in the east and travelled great distances to forage around for images in the far west, at some actual peril to their person. To think of them as big game hunters is not to miss the point.

Bierstadt, our Turner, is perhaps the truest to the actual space: a spectacularist who conveyed that sense of exaggerated awe one feels when confronted with strange natural phenomena.

His painting, "Yellowstone Falls" hangs in the western art section of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, a town about 50 miles from the east gate of Yellowstone Park.