Among the Sierra Nevada, California

Object Details

Artist

Albert Bierstadt, born Solingen, Germany 1830-died New York City 1902

Gallery Label

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

Publication Label

Albert Bierstadt's beautifully crafted paintings played to a market eager, in the 1860s, for spectacular views of the nation's frontier. Bierstadt painted Among the Sierra Nevada, California in his Rome studio. He then showed the canvas in Berlin and London before shipping it to the United States. Works such as this fueled the image of America as a promised land just when Europeans were immigrating to this country in great numbers.

Smithsonian American Art Museum: Commemorative Guide. Nashville, TN: Beckon Books, 2015.

Credit Line

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

1868

Object number

1977.107.1

Restrictions & Rights

CC0

Type

Painting

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

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)

See more items in

Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection

Department

Painting and Sculpture

On View

Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2nd Floor, East Wing

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Topic

Landscape\California

Animal\bird\duck

Landscape\lake

Animal\deer

Landscape\waterfall

Landscape\mountain\Sierra Nevada Mountains

Record ID

saam_1977.107.1

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7498df029-5f85-45cd-8d0b-e64e9067f772