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Among the Sierra Nevada, California

1868 Albert Bierstadt Born: Solingen, Germany 1830 Died: New York, New York 1902 oil on canvas overall: 72 x 120 1/8 in. (183 x 305 cm) frame: 96 1/4 x 144 3/8 x 7 1/4 in. (244.5 x 366.7 x 18.4 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Bequest of Helen Huntington Hull, granddaughter of William Brown Dinsmore, who acquired the painting in 1873 for "The Locusts," the family estate in Dutchess County, New York 1977.107.1 Smithsonian American Art Museum
2nd Floor, East Wing

Albert Bierstadt's beautifully crafted paintings played to a hot market in the 1860s for spectacular views of the nation's frontiers. Bierstadt was an immigrant and hardworking entrepreneur who had grown rich pairing his skill as a painter with a talent for self-promotion. He unveiled his canvases as theatrical events, selling tickets and planting news stories—strategies that one critic described as the "vast machinery of advertisement and puffery." A Bierstadt canvas was elaborately framed, installed in a darkened room, and hidden behind luxurious drapes. At the appointed time, the work was revealed to thunderous applause.

This painting was made in London and toured through Europe to St. Petersburg, fueling Europeans' interest in emigration. Buoyed by glowing reviews, Bierstadt then offered the painting to American audiences who could take pride in an American artist's skill and in the natural splendors of their young nation.

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006

Keywords

Animal - bird - duck

Animal - deer

Landscape - California

Landscape - lake

Landscape - mountain - Sierra Nevada Mountains

Landscape - waterfall

painting

paint - oil

fabric - canvas

metal - aluminum - support added

About Albert Bierstadt

Born: Solingen, Germany 1830 Died: New York, New York 1902

More works in the collection by
Albert Bierstadt