Mountain Mist 

Editor: This oil painting, titled "Mountain Mist," presents a cloudy landscape by Albert Bierstadt. It's quite atmospheric, almost dreamy in its composition. What strikes you most when you look at it? Curator: Immediately, I think about the relationship between industry and this landscape. Bierstadt, while romanticizing nature, was also working in a time of rapid industrial expansion. His paintings, made with materials derived through resource extraction, become commodities themselves. Editor: That’s a perspective I hadn’t considered. So, you’re saying the very materials used contribute to a larger economic system? Curator: Precisely. Look at the paint itself, made with pigments sourced from the earth, manufactured and then distributed. And the canvas! Its production involves labor, resources, and technologies all intertwined. Editor: It's fascinating to consider the production journey, almost like a raw materials supply chain depicted indirectly. The “plein-air” tag also highlights how the artist experienced the landscape as material. Curator: Yes! And who then consumes these landscapes? The emerging upper class, displaying them as trophies, proof of their connection to a "wild" America increasingly tamed and commodified. Were the locations easily accessed for painting at that time? Who helped transport materials to the artist, and what were their stories? Editor: So, it's not just about the pretty scene, but the complex network that enables its creation and consumption. I’m definitely viewing it in a new light now! Curator: It’s a system we are still participating in today.