MOUNT NIBLOCK, MOUNT TEMPLE, MOUNT WHYTE BY ALBERT BIERSTADT

 

ALBERT BIERSTADT (1830-1902)
Mount Niblock (2,976 m - 9,764 ft)
Mount Temple (3,544 m -11,627 ft) 
Mount Whyte (2,983 m -9,787 ft) 
Canada ( Alberta)

In Canadian Rockies (Lake Louise), ca. 1889, oil on paper mounted to board, 37.5 x 53.3cm, The MET, not on view 

About the painting
During his travels in the American and Canadian West, Bierstadt made oil sketches such as this one, which he used, back in his New York studio, for reference in concocting the huge, carefully detailed panoramic scenes that brought him critical acclaim during the 1860s and 1870s. By the end of the century, American viewers had come to appreciate the more modest landscape observations of Barbizon and Impressionist painters, and Bierstadt’s sketches were themselves valued as fresh, direct records of the places he had visited.
Extract of the Notice of the MET museum

The mountains 
Mount Niblock (2,976 m (9,764 ft) (first on left in the painting  above)  is a mountain in Banff National Park near Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada. The mountain was named in 1904 after John Niblock, a superintendent with the Canadian Pacific Railway. Niblock was an early promoter of tourism in the Rockies and influenced the naming of some of the CPR stops in Western Canada.
Mount Temple (3,544 m - 11,627 ft)  (in the middle of the painting above) is located in the Bow River Valley between Paradise Creek and Moraine Creek and is the highest peak in the Lake Louisea rea. The peak dominates the western landscape along the Trans-Canada Highway from Castle Junction to Lake Louise. The mountain was named by George Mercer Dawson in 1884 after Sir Richard Temple who visited the Canadian Rockies that same year. Mt. Temple was the first 11,000-foot (3,400 m) peak to be climbed in the Canadian segment of the Rocky Mountains. First Ascent of a peak above 11,000 feet (3,353 m) in the Canadian Rockieso was made  August 17, 1894 by Walter D. Wilcox, Samuel E. S. Allen and Lewis Frissell .
Mount Whyte (2,983 m -9,787 ft)  (at the background of the painting above) is a mountain in Alberta, Canada located in Banff National Park, near Lake Louise. The mountain can be seen from the Trans-Canada Highway, and offers views of the Valley of the Ten Peaks, including the Chateau Lake Louise. The mountain was named in 1898 by Sir William Methuen after William Whyte, a representative of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Mount.Whyte is usually combined with  Mount Niblock when done as a scramble. However, while Mt. Niblock is rated a moderate scramble, Mt. Whyte is much more difficult due to additional exposure and loose rock. The scramble should not be attempted in snowy conditions due to considerable fall distance which would likely prove fatal.

The painter
Albert Bierstadt was a German-born American painter. He was brought to the United States at the age of one by his parents. He later returned to study painting for several years in Düsseldorf. At an early age Bierstadt developed a taste for art and made clever crayon sketches in his youth.
In 1851, he began to paint in oils. He became part of the Hudson River School in New York, an informal group of like-minded painters who started painting along this scenic river. Their style was based on carefully detailed paintings with romantic, almost glowing lighting, sometimes called luminism. An important interpreter of the western landscape, Bierstadt, along with Thomas Moran, is also grouped with the Rocky Mountain School.
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