Lot Essay
RELATED WORKS:
Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point Trail, c. 1873, oil on canvas, 54 x 84¾in. (137.2 x 215.3cm.) Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
RELATED LITERATURE:
N. Anderson and L. Ferber, Albert Bierstadt: Art & Enterprise, New York, 1990, p. 98, fig. 64
Although Bierstadt first travelled to California in 1863, the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 made his second journey in 1871 far simpler, and enabled him to travel and paint extensively throughout the region. One of the first of Bierstadt's significant California pictures, "Donner Lake from the Summit" (The New-York Historical Society) was painted for the railroad baron Collis P. Huntington with whom Bierstadt journeyed shortly after the artist's arrival. With this picture, "Bierstadt had brought the 'pure' western landscape to its apogee...he had stripped away all references to man and cast as his protagonists towering granite cliffs, spectacular cataracts, and dramatic light." (N. Anderson and L. Ferber Albert Bierstadt: Art & Enterprise, p. 97)
During this same time, Bierstadt painted Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point Trail (Yale University Art Gallery). This canvas depicts all of the Valley's characteristic natural beauty and light, but with a contemporary addition. Visitors, inspired by Bierstadt's images and assisted by the railroad, came to this new region, and the artist has thus incorporated them into his canvas. Bierstadt executed many sketches which he used for larger paintings. However, it is somewhat rare for a sketch to relate so precisely to a finished work, as the present work Study for Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point Trail does.
Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point Trail, c. 1873, oil on canvas, 54 x 84¾in. (137.2 x 215.3cm.) Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
RELATED LITERATURE:
N. Anderson and L. Ferber, Albert Bierstadt: Art & Enterprise, New York, 1990, p. 98, fig. 64
Although Bierstadt first travelled to California in 1863, the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 made his second journey in 1871 far simpler, and enabled him to travel and paint extensively throughout the region. One of the first of Bierstadt's significant California pictures, "Donner Lake from the Summit" (The New-York Historical Society) was painted for the railroad baron Collis P. Huntington with whom Bierstadt journeyed shortly after the artist's arrival. With this picture, "Bierstadt had brought the 'pure' western landscape to its apogee...he had stripped away all references to man and cast as his protagonists towering granite cliffs, spectacular cataracts, and dramatic light." (N. Anderson and L. Ferber Albert Bierstadt: Art & Enterprise, p. 97)
During this same time, Bierstadt painted Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point Trail (Yale University Art Gallery). This canvas depicts all of the Valley's characteristic natural beauty and light, but with a contemporary addition. Visitors, inspired by Bierstadt's images and assisted by the railroad, came to this new region, and the artist has thus incorporated them into his canvas. Bierstadt executed many sketches which he used for larger paintings. However, it is somewhat rare for a sketch to relate so precisely to a finished work, as the present work Study for Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point Trail does.