The Rocky Mountains Lander's Peak Analysis

Albert Bierstadt’s The Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak (1863) is a oil on panel that means it has been created on wood, and the oil in the painting allows easy manipulation for the choice of color in the panting. However, David P. Bradley’s Indian Country Today (1997) is an acrylic on canvas that means it allows for multiple possibilities for color and technique. Bierstadt and Bradley paintings both have similar forms and choices of hue. In Bierstadt painting the use of form allows the viewer to distinguish between the mountains, trees, and the grass within the painting. In addition, the hue in Bierstadt’s painting also allows the viewer to perceive the difference between the grey color of the mountains to the hunter green of the trees and grass. In Bradley’s painting the form is similar to Bierstadt because it allows the viewer the ability to perceive images and details

Bierstadt and Bradley’s paintings both share the line as an element and rhythm as a principal. In Bierstadt’s oil painting the use of line allows the mountains and trees to take on a three dimensional shape. The use of rhythm in Bierstadt’s painting shows the similar repeated images such as, way the animals are painted to look identical to one another. In Bradley’s painting the similarity of line allows the buildings, cars, and the dessert plants to define where one three dimensional object begins and another one ends. Bradley also uses similar rhythm with the repetitive size of the buildings, cars, and dessert plants. However, Bierstadt painting does show different forms of line in the picture. The way Bierstadt painted the trees and mountains gives the artwork the third characteristic of line implication, which means that the painting does not have a line that connects the tops of the forms within the painting. On the other hand, Bradley’s use of line is more detailed, and it does