Among the Sierra Nevada, California

Bierstadt painted this enormous vision of the Sierra Nevada not in California but in a Rome studio, from sketches and memory, and toured it around Europe like a spectacle — a glowing advertisement for the American West. Light breaks through storm cloud onto a still lake; deer stand at the water, waterfalls thread the far cliffs, peaks rise into gold. None of it is any one real place; all of it is the myth of the frontier as Eden, composed for maximum awe. Audiences paid admission to sit before it. Grand, theatrical, and unashamedly beautiful — the American sublime at full volume.

Maker

Albert Bierstadt (1830 to 1902)

Date

1868

Medium of the original

Painting

Original held by

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington

Credit

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington · via Wikimedia Commons

Rights

Public domain, verified

Catalogue number

PA-00642