Buffalo on the Platte River by Worthington Wittredge 1886

Wittredge's oil painting on canvas depicts a scene of a herd of buffalo. The landscape focuses on the Platte river valley with a mountainous terrain in the background. The skies are stormy but not foreboding and a few wild flowers and trees scatter the landscape. The landscape is beautiful, detailed, and realistic. His dramatic use of color helps paint the scene of peacefulness. There is nothing too bright or too harsh about the colors and they are mostly muted and neutral tones. The buffalo are grazing and drinking from the Platte River. They are very realistic looking, especially the ones drinking from the River because we have a closer view. We see the buffalo in their natural habitat, undisturbed and peaceful. They seem to be unaware that they are being watched and they just go about their business. Wittredge depicts the wild buffalo as a thing of beauty. They are peaceful, beautiful and serene without the interference from man.  His use of color, realistic landscape, and detail all contribute to the relaxed feeling of beauty you experience when you look at the painting. By depicting the wild buffalo this way; Wittredge is trying to relay the message that wild, untouched animals are a thing of beauty.