RSSDid Someone Say Purple Mountains Majesty?
17 May 2007 Comments Off
in Art
Recently, I visited a place called Jockey Hollow in Morristown, New Jersey. The area is a National Park, and is known for its beauty and remembered because this is where a number of American troops endured a fierce winter – including seven ‘blizzards’ in December alone – more than two hundred years and twenty years ago in what was known as The American Revolutionary War.
We hiked through wooded country, up and down the hills, and deep into the forest where our forefathers huddled through the winter in the soldiers huts, which were really no more than makeshift bivouacs. They slept on straw, and were lucky to get three meals a week much less a day. Over 1000 American troops deserted due to the harsh conditions.
We visited some dwellings that were used as the Officers GHQ, where we examined documents written by the Generals of the Army. The most famous is the Wick House pictured directly below.
These letters and notes described the hardships of such a winter, away from hearth and home, deprived of desperately needed reinforcements, and lacking the much needed re-supplies of food, weapons, ammunition, changes of clothing, and the warmth and comfort of plentiful female bosoms.
Fear not readers. While this column cannot provide you with a homestead, or fresh clothing, food, or bath water, we can deliver vast amounts of breast flesh, or rather, we can point you in the right direction.
As a tribute to these unbelievable women, that adorn our pages with regularity, in this column, we shall offer you views of some magnificent mountains of another kind. Our artist is Albert Bierstadt. His works are currently found in museums all over the United States.
Bierstadt’s works are prime examples of what was known as the Hudson River School [of Art]. This was not an art school per se but an informal group of painters who employed a radical (at the time) style of bringing light into their work. This style became known as luminism.
The grandeur of the mountains portrayed in Albert Bierstadt’s landscapes of the American West, is a style of art that is only a precursor to the concept that bigger is better. Though Bierstadt was not consider to be exemplary in his own day. His paintings were considered to be ostentatiously oversized by the art critics of his day. However currently his works are extremely well received by today’s standards. Bierstadt died more than 100 years ago in 1902. We hope he is aware of the accolades he now receives. The images to come may be or may not be your idea of majestic mountainous splendor … but on that note, we shall conclude our lecture for today.
For more commentaries on Art, Travel, Movies, and DVD’s please stop by our pages often. We do appreciate your visits.
I originally published this column in AoV on May7th, 2000. This updated version is for JustMeMike’s New Also on Video and is published May 17, 2007.