Bierstadt was always aware of the importance of the sky in his works and often brought it into active play as a source of illumination and an element of design...The study reproduced here, which is among Bierstadt's more detailed sky scenes, indicates the seriousness with which he studied light sources and cloud formations. Text and images courtesy of Matthew Biagell, from his book titled "Albert Bierstadt," published by Watson-Guptill Publications, ISBN 0-8230-0493-7