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In the panoramic Sierra Nevada, a family of three deer stands at the edge of clear blue-green waters. High above them are the snowcapped Sierra Nevada mountains. A cool palette imparts a serene quality to the canvas and tempers any sense of danger in the sublime natural setting. Beneath the surface, the water reveals submerged limbs and rocks in the right mid-ground, as well as reflections of the mountains and the waterfall at the center. Despite its horizontal orientation, the composition is overwhelmingly vertical. The vastness of the peaks is emphasized by the interspersed clouds. The massive rocky forms dwarf the wildlife below, and the substantial waterfall appears small against the high rock face. Tightly rendered brushstrokes record minute details throughout the composition, keeping the viewer fully engaged in the spectacular view.
Artists like Bierstadt often travelled with geological survey expeditions to record rarely encountered vistas. The grand paintings that resulted charmed the nation and promoted the preservation of scenic land as national parks. [2] Although this particular scene is an assemblage of sketches made during Bierstadt’s visit to the Mt. Whitney area of the Sierra Nevadas between 1872 and 1873, Sierra Nevada stands among Bierstadt’s most impressive canvases for its clarity of color and serene light.
Notes:
[1] Frederick Law Olmsted, “Preliminary Report upon Yosemite and Big Tree Grove, 1865,” Frederick Law Olmsted Papers
[2] Mary S. Haverstock, “Can Nature Imitate Art?” Art in America 54 (January–February1966), 73.
Mrs. Benjamin (Dora) Antin (1895-1970), New York, NY. [1]
1966
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, NY. [2]
From 1966
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, purchased from Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York on October 31, 1966. [3]
Notes
[1] Joan Durana, Provenance Research, 1983.
[2] Bill of sale, Object file.
[3] See note 2.
Exhibition History1966
Past, Present, Two Hundred Years of American Painting, Part One: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, NY (1966)
Cat. No. 181
1971
Reynolda House American Paintings
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, NY (1/13/1971-1/31/1971)
Cat. No. 16
For the benefit of the Smith College Scholarship Fund
1990-1992
American Originals, Selections From Reynolda House, Museum Of American Art
The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis ,TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth, TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, IL (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
2005
Vanguard Collecting: American Art at Reynolda House
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (4/1/2005-8/21/2005)
2007-2008
America Today: 300 Years of Art from the US
Organized by Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China (1/30/2007-4/8/2007)
Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China (4/30/2007-6/30/2007)
Pushkin Museum of Fine Art, Moscow, Russia (7/23/2007-9/9/2007)
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain (10/10/2007-1/13/2008)
2021
Catasterism in Three Movements, by Matthew Barney and Jonathan Bepler
four performances occurring September 22-25 at Schaulager in Basel, Switzerland
Published ReferencesLassiter, Barbara B. Reynolda House American Paintings. Winston-Salem, NC: Reynolda House, Inc., 1971: 32, illus. 33.
Millhouse, Barbara B. & Workman, Robert. American Originals New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990: 72-4.
Kennedy Quarterly VI New York: Kennedy Galleries, October 1966: 186, illus. 188.
America Today. Guggenheim Musuem, 2007. (photo request)
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg 54, 55, 94, 95, 224
DepartmentAmerican Art
Sierra Nevada
Artist
Albert Bierstadt
(1830 - 1902)
Date1871-1873
Mediumoil on canvas
DimensionsFrame: 45 1/2 x 64 in. (115.6 x 162.6 cm)
Image: 38 1/2 x 56 1/2 in. (97.8 x 143.5 cm)
Canvas: 39 1/2 × 58 in. (100.3 × 147.3 cm)
SignedA Bierstadt
Credit LineOriginal Purchase Fund from the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, ARCA, and Anne Cannon Forsyth
CopyrightPublic Domain
Object number1966.2.7
DescriptionAlbert Bierstadt established his reputation painting the grandeur and unspoiled wilderness of the West. In an 1865 report to Congress on the preservation of the Yosemite Valley, noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted claimed: “It is in no scene or scenes that the charm consists, but in the miles of scenery where cliffs of awful height and rocks of vast magnitude and of varied and exquisite coloring are banked and fringed and draped and shadowed by the tender foliage of noble and lovely trees and bushes, reflected from the most placid pools, and associated with the most tranquil meadows, the most playful streams and every variety of soft and peaceful pastoral beauty.” [1] Bierstadt was one of a handful of artists who masterfully captured the sublime beauty of western scenery and by doing so fueled the movement to save it. In the panoramic Sierra Nevada, a family of three deer stands at the edge of clear blue-green waters. High above them are the snowcapped Sierra Nevada mountains. A cool palette imparts a serene quality to the canvas and tempers any sense of danger in the sublime natural setting. Beneath the surface, the water reveals submerged limbs and rocks in the right mid-ground, as well as reflections of the mountains and the waterfall at the center. Despite its horizontal orientation, the composition is overwhelmingly vertical. The vastness of the peaks is emphasized by the interspersed clouds. The massive rocky forms dwarf the wildlife below, and the substantial waterfall appears small against the high rock face. Tightly rendered brushstrokes record minute details throughout the composition, keeping the viewer fully engaged in the spectacular view.
Artists like Bierstadt often travelled with geological survey expeditions to record rarely encountered vistas. The grand paintings that resulted charmed the nation and promoted the preservation of scenic land as national parks. [2] Although this particular scene is an assemblage of sketches made during Bierstadt’s visit to the Mt. Whitney area of the Sierra Nevadas between 1872 and 1873, Sierra Nevada stands among Bierstadt’s most impressive canvases for its clarity of color and serene light.
Notes:
[1] Frederick Law Olmsted, “Preliminary Report upon Yosemite and Big Tree Grove, 1865,” Frederick Law Olmsted Papers
[2] Mary S. Haverstock, “Can Nature Imitate Art?” Art in America 54 (January–February1966), 73.
Mrs. Benjamin (Dora) Antin (1895-1970), New York, NY. [1]
1966
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, NY. [2]
From 1966
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, purchased from Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York on October 31, 1966. [3]
Notes
[1] Joan Durana, Provenance Research, 1983.
[2] Bill of sale, Object file.
[3] See note 2.
Exhibition History1966
Past, Present, Two Hundred Years of American Painting, Part One: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, NY (1966)
Cat. No. 181
1971
Reynolda House American Paintings
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, NY (1/13/1971-1/31/1971)
Cat. No. 16
For the benefit of the Smith College Scholarship Fund
1990-1992
American Originals, Selections From Reynolda House, Museum Of American Art
The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis ,TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth, TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, IL (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
2005
Vanguard Collecting: American Art at Reynolda House
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (4/1/2005-8/21/2005)
2007-2008
America Today: 300 Years of Art from the US
Organized by Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China (1/30/2007-4/8/2007)
Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, China (4/30/2007-6/30/2007)
Pushkin Museum of Fine Art, Moscow, Russia (7/23/2007-9/9/2007)
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain (10/10/2007-1/13/2008)
2021
Catasterism in Three Movements, by Matthew Barney and Jonathan Bepler
four performances occurring September 22-25 at Schaulager in Basel, Switzerland
Published ReferencesLassiter, Barbara B. Reynolda House American Paintings. Winston-Salem, NC: Reynolda House, Inc., 1971: 32, illus. 33.
Millhouse, Barbara B. & Workman, Robert. American Originals New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990: 72-4.
Kennedy Quarterly VI New York: Kennedy Galleries, October 1966: 186, illus. 188.
America Today. Guggenheim Musuem, 2007. (photo request)
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg 54, 55, 94, 95, 224
Status
On view