Yellowstone a favorite for artists over years
CODY, Wyo. - CODY, Wyo. (AP) — Artistic depictions of geysers, rivers and other water features in Yellowstone National Park have influenced public perceptions of the West, helped create a regional tourism industry and even sold soda pop.
"Artists have been inspired by Yellowstone since before it became a national park in 1872, and they continue to be inspired today," said Christine Brindza, acting curator of the Whitney Gallery of Western Art.
Brindza recently gave an overview of how artists have interpreted the park's geothermal features, waterfalls and other attractions during a presentation at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.
Artistic depictions of the park have evolved from a romantic view that was popular more than 100 years ago to contemporary works that offer a more intimate and realistic take on nature, she said.
In the early 1800s, explorers and trappers returned from what is now Yellowstone with fantastic stories of indescribable scenery and a land that was literally churning with heat and energy.
"They would come across these areas that had hot springs or geysers and it seemed like hell was just bubbling out of the earth," Brindza said, adding that scientific expeditions were later organized to study the strange landscapes.
"The artist Thomas Moran came with the Hayden expedition in 1871, and it was the first time that an artist and a photographer came to the area and could capture the same sights around them," she said.
Though Moran said that it was "with a sort of regretful enthusiasm that these beautiful tints are beyond the reach of human art," his 84-square-foot "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone" was an immediate public sensation.
"It was the first American landscape by a U.S. artist purchased by the U.S. government. It cost $10,000 at the time," Brindza said.
Albert Bierstadt, a rival of Moran, had been asked to accompany geologist Ferdinand Hayden's 1871 expedition, but didn't relish the idea of riding along rough trails and sleeping in tents.
By 1881, after roads and hotels were built, Bierstadt toured the park and painted "Geysers in Yellowstone," which hangs in the Whitney Gallery.
Brindza said that Bierstadt "took a little bit of artistic liberty with that painting," which shows several closely spaced geysers all erupting at once.
In 1924, Swedish artist Gunnar Widforss was among the first to capture the abstract beauty of the park, painting not the popular Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon, but the subtle interplay of light and shadow on the rocks and canyon walls around the falls.
In 1929, Carl Preussl painted a vibrantly colored view of Old Faithful that included small clusters of tourists standing around their automobiles, showing the park's growing popularity as a tourist attraction, Brindza said.
The iconic geyser even appears in a 1931 Coca-Cola advertisement painted by Frederic Mizen that ran in the Saturday Evening Post.
The erupting geyser in the scene's background is referred to as "another pause that refreshes," as park rangers, tourists and even bears happily drink Cokes in front of the Old Faithful Inn.
Montana native Joseph Bohler offers a new artistic take on geysers with his 1996 painting, "Yellowstone."
The image conveys the violent disturbance of an erupting geyser set against a calm and pristine background, conveying a documentary view of the park's hidden places and events, Brindza said.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
