Wikimedia Commons • Public Domain
Storm Among the Alps
Artwork Details
Cite or Embed This Work
APA · MLA · Chicago1-click academic citation and embeddable “On View” museum badge for articles, syllabi, and research.
Albert Bierstadt completed this dramatic Alpine scene around 1856, before his famous expeditions to the American West. A towering mountain peak catches warm sunset light while storm clouds gather in the valley below. The contrast between illuminated summit and shadowed depths creates the theatrical atmosphere Bierstadt would perfect in later works.
Bierstadt traveled to Europe in 1853 to study with artists in Düsseldorf. This painting reflects that training, combining detailed observation with Romantic drama. Within years, he would apply these techniques to the Rocky Mountains and Yosemite, becoming America's most celebrated landscape painter. The work remains in a private collection.
More by Albert Bierstadt
View all →
Also at Private Collection
View all →
Related Works
Works that share an artist, movement, museum, genre, palette or theme with Storm Among the Alps.
- Same artist
- Same movement
Day's Beginning
Albert Bierstadt
- Same artist
- Same movement
The Matterhorn
Albert Bierstadt
- Same artist
- Same movement
Staubbach Falls, Near Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland
Albert Bierstadt
- Same movement
- Same museum
The bather
Jean-François Millet
- Same movement
- Same museum
Two Views of an Indian from Calcutta, Seated and Standing
Eugène Delacroix
- Same movement
Storm in the Mountains
Frederic Edwin Church
- Same movement
Niagara
Frederic Edwin Church, 1857
- Same movement
Heart of the Andes
Frederic Edwin Church, 1859
- Same movement
The Oxbow
Thomas Cole, 1836
- Same movement
Lake George
John Frederick Kensett
- Same movement
Hyde Park
John Martin
- Same movement
Fur Traders Descending the Missouri
George Caleb Bingham, 1845
About Storm Among the Alps
Bierstadt created this around 1856, during or shortly after his European training. It predates his famous American mountain paintings by several years.
Storm Among the Alps is currently in a private collection. Bierstadt's major American landscapes are at the Metropolitan Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and National Gallery of Art.
Bierstadt was a leading figure of the Hudson River School, American Romantic landscape painters who celebrated nature's grandeur. This Alpine scene shows his European training before focusing on American subjects.
Own Art Like This
Luxury wall art with the same mood and energy. Gallery-quality canvas, no museum crowds.
Browse Collection