#FineArtFriday: Seal Rock by Albert Bierstadt

Artist: Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902)

Title: Seal Rock

Genre: marine art

Date: 1880s

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions:   height: 105 cm (41.3 in)

What I love about this painting:

It is a blustery day on the cold, wild sea. The sun briefly shines through, illuminating the rocks, glowing through a cresting wave. This is a masterful depiction of the scene, painted later in his life. It is dynamic and dramatic, conveying the power of the waves and the emotion of the scene.

Despite the efforts of the sea to wash them away, the rocks stand strong, offering a safe place for the seals.

As an avid watcher of nature shows, I love this painting.  Bierstadt captures these seals doing all the things seals do. They are fishing, lounging, and several pairs are apparently arguing.

Not unlike my family when we go out to lounge on a rock beside the sea.

About the Artist, via Wikipedia:

Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was not the first artist to record the sites, but he was the foremost painter of them for the remainder of the 19th century.

Bierstadt was born in Prussia, but his family moved to the United States when he was one year old. He returned to study painting for several years in Düsseldorf. He became part of the second generation of the Hudson River School in New York, an informal group of like-minded painters who started painting along the Hudson River. Their style was based on carefully detailed paintings with romantic, almost glowing lighting, sometimes called luminism. Bierstadt was an important interpreter of the western landscape, and he is also grouped with the Rocky Mountain School. [1]

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Seal Rock by Albert Bierstadt, Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Seal Rock by Albert Bierstadt, c. 1872-1887, oil on canvas – New Britain Museum of American Art – DSC09221.JPG,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Seal_Rock_by_Albert_Bierstadt,_c._1872-1887,_oil_on_canvas_-_New_Britain_Museum_of_American_Art_-_DSC09221.JPG&oldid=975772252 (accessed March 27, 2025).

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Albert Bierstadt,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Albert_Bierstadt&oldid=1277160716 (accessed March 27, 2025).