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Lot Essay
Albert Bierstadt's remarkably spontaneous sketches of the American West as he observed it in 1859 are a testament to the artist's skill and keen observation. Nancy Anderson has noted that "while in the field with the Lander party, Bierstadt utilized the working method he had adopted while a student in Düsseldorf. Painting quickly, he completed a large number of plein air oil sketches, which he later used to compose studio pictures. Though not intended for formal exhibition, some of these fresh and often spare studies display a power that belies their size." (N. Anderson in Albert Bierstadt: Art and Enterprise, New York, 1990, p. 72-3)
Homestead in the Rocky Mountains bears many of the hallmarks of Surveyor's Wagon in the Rockies (The Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri), which Nancy Anderson has described as follows: "Though measuring less than eight by thirteen inches, this extraordinarily delicate painting manages to convey the near-limitless expanse of western space more successfully than some of the artist's later works that dwarf it in size. Equally remarkable is Bierstadt's subtle comment on the fragility of the expedition enterprise. The lone human figure appears but a specter on the horizon, and the tethered animals stand in isolation on legs rendered with single strokes. As Bierstadt's private rather than public pictures, the sketches stand in marked contrast to the carefully composed and highly structured studio paintings." (N. Anderson in Albert Bierstadt: Art and Enterprise, New York, 1990, p. 72-3)
Homestead in the Rocky Mountains bears many of the hallmarks of Surveyor's Wagon in the Rockies (The Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri), which Nancy Anderson has described as follows: "Though measuring less than eight by thirteen inches, this extraordinarily delicate painting manages to convey the near-limitless expanse of western space more successfully than some of the artist's later works that dwarf it in size. Equally remarkable is Bierstadt's subtle comment on the fragility of the expedition enterprise. The lone human figure appears but a specter on the horizon, and the tethered animals stand in isolation on legs rendered with single strokes. As Bierstadt's private rather than public pictures, the sketches stand in marked contrast to the carefully composed and highly structured studio paintings." (N. Anderson in Albert Bierstadt: Art and Enterprise, New York, 1990, p. 72-3)