Last week, my wife and I visited the Portland Museum of Art, in Portland, Maine. We admire many of the traditional paintings from their collection, which we usually can find on exhibit in one of the several back galleries. I have always been taken by Albert Bierstadt's painting, Autumn Birches (Approaching Storm). When you walk in the gallery where it is being exhibited, it captures your attention immediately. It is not just the striking red foliage but the storm-like clouds, which some attribute to the conflict leading to the impending civil war.
Bierstadt painted this oil on board around 1860 in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. He lived from 1830-1902. He was born in Germany but came to the United States as a toddler. Many landscape painters of his era traveled to scenic landscapes during the warm season and painted outdoors en plein air.
Much of this information is reported on a display panel next to the painting, hanging at the Portland Museum of Art, in Portland, Maine.
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