Mount St. Helens, Columbia River, Oregon

Albert likely painted this dramatic scene in fall 1889 on his way back through Washington and Oregon after his Alaskan adventures, documented in the adjacent painting. He had visited the region in 1863 on his second trip to paint the landscape of the far west. Now, twenty-six years later, he was at the apex of artistic recognition and financial success.

This painting depicts Mount St. Helens, which suffered a catastrophic volcanic eruption some ninety years later, in 1980. The mountain is important to the Puyallup, Klickitat, Yakama, and Cowlitz peoples, who, in their languages, refer to it as a smoking or fire mountain