The Hyde Collection

September 17th

Drawing I

Response Paper

I chose to go to The Hyde Collection, located in the historic Glens Falls, New York. The Hyde itself was gorgeous, the old architecture gave the whole trip a great feel, and the employees were more than happy to answer any questions that I had. I find it amazing how they turned The Hyde’s family home into one of the most famous art museums in New York.

As I was grazing through the beautiful artwork, one piece stuck out to me. It was a landscape painting of a valley. The immense amount of focus and detail that is engraved in this painting was outstanding to me. I stared into it for five minutes straight in awe. The painting was called Yosemite Valley, and the artist was Albert Bierstadt. This was a relatively old painting, aging back to 1865.

The painting itself gives the viewer an idea of what that breathtaking view must be like if you were looking at Yosemite Valley yourself. The use of space, colors, and reflection give this painting a real-life feel. You can see the tall pine trees reflecting off the water, meanwhile you have these monstrous Rocky Mountains, that really give the scale of how large this valley is. Meanwhile placed right on the edge of the water line, there is a single baby deer just roaming this amazing landscape. Next to the baby deer is a piece of driftwood. In the driftwood, you can see the shaded areas along with the light, the value balance is impeccable. Now, as you look farther and deeper into the photo, there are more mountains in the distance, but the clouds make it slightly difficult to see. Yet, this suspense with the clouds, makes the viewer want to jump into the photo and travel down the water line to see more of this beauty.

I personally love this painting because of all the tiny details that make this painting