Dominating the landscape - Exhibit captures vision of nature as depicted by Hudson River School artists

"Dominating the landscape - Exhibit captures vision of nature as depicted by Hudson River School artists" by Cate McQuaid, © The Boston Globe, August 26, 2011. (ART REVIEW)

" ... [Albert] Bierstadt’s grand Donner Lake From the Summit ... A sumptuous landscape, with the turquoise lake cradled in mountains beneath a lemony sky, this painting was commissioned by railroad magnate Collis P. Huntington to commemorate the Central Pacific Railroad’s highest geographic point, which required blasting nine tunnels through solid granite. A shiny train laces across the mountain’s edge on the right of the painting. Bierstadt painted it in 1873, 27 years after the Donner party was trapped at the pass. Viewers at the time wouldn’t have missed the juxtaposition of the railroad’s forward progress with the earlier plight of pioneers. ... " [More]

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