Welcome to the Website of
Pooja Dasgupta
Pharmacy Student
Met Museum Analysis
"Sunrise on the Matterhorn" By Albert Bierstadt
The art piece that I have chosen to analyze after visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) is “Sunrise on the Matterhorn” by Albert Bierstadt. According to the wall text from the museum, this piece of art was painted in the summer of 1856 during a four-year period of study in Europe. Intrigued by the Swiss terrain, Bierstadt joined several American colleagues and embarked on a sketching trip. The outcome of this trip resulted in a series of oil studies, pencil sketches and multiple large canvas paintings of the mountain landscape. The beautiful “Sunrise on the Matterhorn” is an oil painting on canvas and depicts a dramatized image of the sun rising behind an immense mountain of the Alps, known as the Matterhorn. I came across this painting in the American Wing of the Met and was in complete awe of the painting as I first thought it was a photograph. The artist’s remarkable painting skills are truly epitomized in this piece of art and captivates the minds of all its viewers.
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The genre of this art piece is landscape as the painting is a breathtaking view of the Swiss Alps mountain range early in the morning. Bierstadt portrays a scene, where the Matterhorn breaks through the misty clouds as the sun is shining upon the mountain creating almost a celestial event. The sky and the weather in the painting greatly influence the depiction of the mountain range.
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The visual element of line is prominent in this painting and is depicted by the trees and the Matterhorn. The downward slopes of the mountain and the hill, which the trees are on top of, creates lines and closed shapes with definite edges. Initially, the most outstanding lines in the painting are the straight trunks of the trees. These lines give the tree's structure and definition and give the viewer a direction to look at. The trees are depicted to be growing straight up which leads the viewer's eyes to be traveling up the painting towards the sunrise. The lines of the hill outline the forest of trees and make them appear to be up in front. In addition, the outlines help the viewer avoid confusion and distinguish the separation of light and dark. The lines at the top of Matterhorn appear to be sharp and precise edges, which provides great depth and the illusion of the mountain being ridged.
Another aspect of the painting that contributes to its beauty is the compositional elements found within the artwork. The format the artist chose for this painting appears to be two triangles slightly off-centered to each other. The trees at the bottom left corner of the painting seem to be positioned in a right triangle with the top of the trees is the top of the triangle. The other triangle is positioned higher and includes the airy clouds towards the bottom of the triangle. The apex for the second triangle is the peak of Matterhorn. The positions of the triangles being right next to each other creates a division of light and darkness.
The airy and fluffy clouds surrounding the mountain shows the magnitude of the Matterhorn. The colors of the sunlight juxtaposed with the darkness towards the bottom of the painting create a calm, quiet and peaceful effect for the viewers, as it appears that the light is overcoming the darkness.
In addition to closed shapes, the artist also employs the element of open shapes by painting white fluffy clouds. These clouds are created with soft, non-existent edges, which results in a blurry effect and bridges the gap between the dark bottom and light top. The open shapes seamlessly blend the two contrasting sides and create a depth that goes beyond into the clouds.
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Bierstadt achieved these effortless-looking clouds and this ridged mountain as a result of the material he utilized throughout the painting. The art piece has a smooth texture and no visible brushstrokes. Bierstadt created this look by implementing oil paint and making repetitive brush strokes, in an attempt to blend the colors. It also appears that most of the paint strokes were done wet into wet. The paint by the sunlit mountainside appears to have been quite vicious and sticky as it created small and stiff peaks. Sections of the rocky foreground in the lower-left must have been painted in several layers over dry paint as there are some cracks by the dark forest trees. Originally, when I saw this painting, I mistook it to be a photograph because of how vivid and bright the colors appeared. Through the use of luminosity, Bierstadt was able to create the illusion of light coming within the painting and therefore make it look realistic. The artist put the lightest and brightest color on the Matterhorn and made the surrounding clouds appear grayish. The darkness surrounding the mountain intensified the “light” shining from the left and makes Matterhorn the focal point of the piece.
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To create such an intense and dramatized painting, the artist implemented several additional techniques such as overlapping, position, scale changes, and atmospheric perspective to create an illusion of space. The overlapping in this painting is evident by the trees being positioned in at the bottom left corner overlapping the clouds and Matterhorn. Overlapping is also depicted with the clouds as they float around and on top of the mountain. This technique of overlapping creates an illusion of depth as it makes Matterhorn appear farther back and the dark evergreen trees closer. Bierstadt strengthens this illusion with scale changes as he paints trees of different sizes. Along the right corner, the artist paints small, minuscule trees. Naturally, when objects are smaller, they are farther away; therefore, the tiny trees reveal to the viewer that they are a great distance away. Bierstadt emphasizes the grand size of Matterhorn also by painting the tiny trees. The proportion of the tiny trees compared to the massive mountain uncovers to viewers its immense stature. Lastly, Bierstadt employs the technique of atmospheric perspective by painting airy, fluffy clouds and sharp, clear trees. The clouds being painted with soft edges create the illusion of being unambiguous and therefore farther away. In comparison, the trees are vivid and the viewer can see it explicitly, which creates the illusion of being closer. By differentiating the relative sharpness of clouds and the trees, Bierstadt was able to paint the illusion of depth and space in his painting.
Immigration/Migration Narrative
October 02, 1919
Dear Diary,
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The last time I wrote in this notebook, my family and I were preparing to leave Italy and embark on our voyage to the greater land of America. It has been four months since then and a lot has changed.
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My mom, dad, brother and I made this journey across the Atlantic abroad a steamship as steerage passengers. The crossing was strenuous as the bottom of the steamships were overflowing with other steerage passengers and hosted a multitude of unsanitary conditions. The total journey spanned about twelve weeks of which I was seasick for about two weeks. Despite having few amenities and suffering through the tumultuous waves of the ocean, it was all worth it after sailing across Lady Liberty.
I remember seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time and my eyes pooling with tears. My mom started to burst into tears and others surrounding me began singing out of joy. We all heard the same thing about America and how it was filled with new opportunities and economic prosperity. The Statue of Liberty stands as a symbol of America and the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. My family decided to make this drastic life decision and travel across to the world to settle in a foreign country because of the arduous poverty that my family had to suffer through back home in Italy. Life in Sicily was treacherous for my family, as the soil was poor and therefore was yielding very little crops. As a result, malnutrition, disease, and violence began to spread all over the country. We hope that life here in America will be a new chapter and offer much more success and happiness.
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Upon our arrival at New York City, the steamship docked at the Hudson pier and we were instructed to board the ferry, which would transport us to Ellis Island where everyone would have to undergo a medical and legal inspection. My parents feared that all of us would get separated and as the Great War just ended and the U.S was detaining and deporting thousands of suspected alien radicals. Fortunately, by the grace of God our immigration papers were in order and we were also in reasonably good health. Although terrifying, the inspection process at Ellis Island did not take too long-lasting approximately four hours for my family. There were interpreters available that eased my nerves a bit because I could actually understand what was going on. The inspection took place in the Registry Room where the doctors briefly examined all the immigrants for apparent physical ailments. Once we passed the physical examination, legal inspectors cross-examined us with questions that we were previously asked before embarking on the steamship. After we passed the inspection, we were simply sent on our own to venture out and make a name for ourselves in this new country.
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My family decided to stay in New York City, specifically on the streets of Lower Manhattan. We found more southern Italian families and opted to stick together so that we can protect each other and form a sense of community. For the past three months, my family has been renting out this apartment in this tenement on Mulberry Street. In 1867, Congress passed the “Tenement-House Act” as a result of the horrendous living conditions present in the tenement and outbreak of disease. With this act, landlords of tenements were required to put in windows in interior rooms mainly for ventilation and luminosity in the dark hallways. Although advances were made to amend the harsh living conditions, things still remain unacceptable and dangerous. Overcrowding in the tenements remains to be one of the biggest issues as landlords keep permitted more families to
stay. I have made several friends in the past couple of months as there is a total of 89 children living at our tenement! The law defines a tenement as a house that is occupied by three or more families living independently. However, in reality, tenements are generally brick buildings from four to six stories high with four families occupying each floor. At the tenement we live in there is a bar on the first floor which was has a side opening for people to come and purchase liquor even on Sundays. Even though the act was passed, the hallways have very poor ventilation and the staircase in the middle is always dark. This is a major disappointment to me as I never thought in a million years that this land of dreams and opportunities would be tainted with such a difficult lifestyle.
In addition to the harsh living conditions in the tenements, I have also picked up a job sewing shirts in the sweatshops. I have been fortunate enough to be able to work with my mom and earn a small amount of money to help support my family. Just last month I turned fifteen years old, which as helped significantly as I no longer have to lie about my age. Before I was told to lie about my age and say
Girls sewing in an attic on Elizabeth Street.
I was fifteen when I was actually fourteen, in an effort to keep my job. Workdays have been super long starting from 4 o’clock in the morning to as late as 11 at night. I have been receiving a very unfair wage of $1.75 per week and have been also required to find my own thread and pay for the sewing machines. The working conditions are treacherous with very poor ventilation, no breaks, poor lightning, oppressive heat and very long hours. Just yesterday two girls working next to me fainted as a result of the heat and long hours working in the sweatshop. I hope new laws are set in place to require sweatshop owners to pay their employees fair wages and better working conditions. So far my family’s experience in America has been challenging and quite demanding. However, I have heard that is just part of the American dream and we must carry on working hard in order to succeed. Even though there have been several hardships, I still believe in America being the land of opportunities and look forward to my future here in this country.
-Isabelle Solano
Works Cited
“Destination America.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/destinationamerica/usim_wn_noflash_5.html.
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“Ellis Island History.” Ellis Island History - The Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island, www.libertyellisfoundation.org/ellis-island-history#Ship.
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“Italian - Tenements and Toil .” Library of Congress,
In 1990, my father, Sukomal Dasgupta, arrived in the United States all alone with only $300 to his name. My dad was raised in Chittagong, Bangladesh and received the opportunity to come to the United States as a result of the Immigration Act of 1990. This piece of legislation was signed by President George H. W. Bush and established the permanent Diversity Visa program. In an effort to encourage immigration from countries underrepresented in the United States, this program offers 55, 000 (now 50,000) immigrant visas in an annual lottery. The day when his name was called, my dad recalls being ecstatic and rushing home to tell his family. My dad was leaving behind his mom and his eight brothers. Although he was excited to go to America there was part of him that was terrified. He was scared to leave behind his loved ones and worried about how life would be without them. My father came to the U.S alone and only knew this distant relative in America because that person’s family also lived in his village. Even though the thought of traveling on an airplane for the first time to a foreign country seemed intimidating, my father was excited to expand his knowledge and attending university in America.
My father had also heard the same thing old immigrants heard about America; he excepted America to be the land of hopes and dreams. A place filled with opportunities and prosperity if you worked hard enough. He was excited as any young man to make his dreams come true. When he first got from the plane at JFK, that distant relative had come to pick him up and let him stay with him over a month. My dad was eager to get his life started and set out to find work immediately. It was a struggle to find jobs at first because of the language barrier and his strong Indian accent. This initially made my father feel defeated, but he persevered and decided that he was not going to let small things like that get to him.
He eventually got a job to start out and sold newspapers and books on 42 St in Manhattan. Later on, he moved on from that job and began to work at a vegetarian restaurant. He had planned to work and attend college simultaneously so he could become a certified pharmacist in the U.S. Back home in Bangladesh, my dad was a pharmacist, however, did not have the U.S requirements to be able to practice and need more schooling. He ended up attending York College in Queens for 3 years and was only shy of 7 credits before becoming a practice pharmacist in the U.S. However, life hit hard and my mom actually arrived in the United States. Unable to juggle schoolwork, earning money and providing for his fledging family, my father, unfortunately, had to drop out of college. Shortly after, my father and mother moved to Long Island and began growing their family. They had my older brother, Achyut, and three years later a daughter, me! Even though my dad was unable to fulfill his dream of becoming a pharmacist, both my parents work extremely hard and have provided me with a multitude of opportunities to fulfill my dreams and aspirations. In a sense, my father's immigrant dream still lives on through me as I study and hopefully become a pharmacist one day.
Midterm
Visual analysis and historical context of Archibald Motley's 1948 painting, Gettin' Religion.
ASL-Service
Academic Service-Learning (AS-L) at St John's Unversity is a program that requires students to perform community service as a means of understanding course concepts. For my community service, I volunteered at the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn and contributed to not only the Brooklyn community but as well as the environment.
