Alaskan Coast Range

Albert Bierstadt, Alaskan Coast Range, ca. 1889, oil on paper mounted on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Orrin Wickersham June, 1967.136.7
Copied Albert Bierstadt, Alaskan Coast Range, ca. 1889, oil on paper mounted on paperboard, 13 7⁄8 x 19 3⁄8 in. (35.2 x 49.2 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Orrin Wickersham June, 1967.136.7
Free to use

Artwork Details

Title
Alaskan Coast Range
Artist
Date
ca. 1889
Location
Dimensions
13 7⁄8 x 19 3⁄8 in. (35.2 x 49.2 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Orrin Wickersham June
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on paper mounted on paperboard
Classifications
Subjects
  • Landscape — coast
  • Landscape — Alaska
  • Landscape — mountain
Object Number
1967.136.7
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1967.136.7

Artwork Description

Albert Bierstadt traveled through western Canada in 1889 on the Canadian Pacific Railway. He headed to Alaska by steamer in search of "wild places in the mountains," but was shipwrecked in Loring Bay. He lived with the other passengers in Native American huts and filled two books with drawings and paintings of his surroundings. (Anderson and Ferber, Albert Bierstadt: Art and Enterprise, 1990) This painting of the Alaskan coastline is an oil sketch, probably done on the spot as a study for a later work. The cool colors and thin layers of paint evoke the raw atmosphere of the wilderness where Bierstadt found himself stranded.