Mountain Landscape with Trees (from Sketchbook) 1890

This simple pencil sketch of a mountain landscape with trees was made by Albert Bierstadt sometime in the late 19th century. Note the artist's use of verticality, a recurring motif through time and across cultures. The trees, though simply sketched, reach upwards, echoing the mountain's ascent. This visual striving recalls the ancient symbol of the axis mundi—the world axis—connecting the earthly and the divine. Think of the ziggurats of Mesopotamia or the Gothic cathedrals reaching for heaven; this primal urge to connect with something beyond ourselves repeats itself. Even in Bierstadt's understated sketch, this impulse is present. The vertical lines evoke a sense of longing. It is the same deep-seated yearning that drove ancient cultures to build sky-high temples and modern man to launch rockets into space. The mountain and the trees, rendered in simple lines, are thus imbued with layers of meaning, reflecting our collective, ongoing quest for transcendence.