My Favorite Mountain Landscapes

Lower Yellowstone Falls (1881),
Albert Bierstadt

I seem to gravitate toward landscapes, both paintings and photographs. In March 2020, I posted Colorful Landscapes & Outdoor Photographs - Naturalism & Atmosphere. Then in April 2020, I followed with Spectacularly Scenic Grand Canyon, Arizona - Natural Wonder, documenting our road trip that included the fabulous Grand Canyon. I've already shared My Favorite Landscapes with Trees, from April 2023. Now it's time to focus on the subject of mountains in paintings. Prussian-born (1830-1902), German-American painter, Albert Bierstadt was part of the Western Expansion of the United States. Starting with his paintings of the Yosemite Valley in 1868, he was commissioned by the Railroad to paint the Grand Canyon and surrounding region. Having visited Yellowstone National Park in July 2024, I appreciate this dreamlike rendition of the falls.

Mountain Waterfall, Bob Ross

Atmospheric landscapes are difficult to get right, unless you're TV's Bob Ross, who makes it look easy. In The Joy of Painting, Ross was a master of capturing reflections and including happy little bushes that lived in his foregrounds. In May 2023, I posted about Reflections in Art.

Castle on Height near Geneva (1836), Turner

I love landscapes that have dramatic lighting and layering, hazy skies, and atmospheric effects to enhance depth. Such is the case with the painting of English Romantic painter and watercolorist  J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851). You can see his watercolor, Castle on Height near Geneva at the Art Institute of Chicago. He's buried in St. Paul's Cathedral next to Sir Joshua Reynolds, English painter to the King, who is famous for his portraits. Turner's last words were, "The sun is God".

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1872), Moran

American painter, Thomas Moran (1837-1926), like Bierstadt, was part of the Hudson River School and studied the works of J.M.W. Turner. Moran's paintings imbue dramatic lighting and magnificent depth, as in The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. It's like he's leading you into a lost city of gold, out of an Indiana Jones movie!

Sea of Ice (1824), Friedrich

Not a mountain of rock, but a tower of ice, German Romantic Landscape painter, Caspar David Friedrich, captured this layered seascape of icebergs. It's both dramatic and unconventional!

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog
(1818), Friedrich

Friedrich's Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818) is another painting with layers of mountains, showing a rear-facing figure (Rückenfigur) of a man standing in silhouette atop a craggy rock and looking out over the mist. His composition is a rearranged view of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, a range bordering the state of Saxony in southeastern Germany and the North Bohemian region of the Czech Republic. 

The Hunters in the Snow (1565),
Pieter Bruegel the Elder

My favorite mountain landscape is this snow scene by Flemish Renaissance painter, Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The scene was contrived from Bruegel's memories, although there is no such mountain village in the Netherlands with such an Alpine view. A large framed print of this masterpiece hung for years in my Dad's accounting office at Price Waterhouse in New York City on 6th Avenue and the Avenue of the Americas. For a while I possessed it, but alas I don't remember what happened to it ;-(