Wind River Mountain Range Scene

When Alfred Jacob Miller traveled to the Wind River mountain range of Wyoming in 1837, he was the first non-native artist to explore this virtually undisturbed western wilderness. Hired to record the encounters and events of a fur-trading expedition to the Rocky Mountains, he spent six months absorbing landscapes like no other. Years later he was still painting from his sketches of the trip, especially views incorporating his favorite subject: the area’s pristine alpine lakes, such as the one at the center of this luminous painting. With its dramatically lit sky and narrative foil in the lower left corner—leading the viewer to wonder what announcement will be made—the jewel-like canvas offers a serene romantic vision of a sheltered paradise on the brink of change.