Albert Bierstadt (American, 1830-1902)

The Old Mill

Details

Albert Bierstadt (American, 1830-1902)
The Old Mill
signed with conjoined initials and dated 'ABierstadt. 1855.' (lower right)
oil on canvas
43 ½ x 37 5/8 in. (110.5 x 95.5 cm.)
Painted in 1855.

Provenance

Mrs. Hathaway, New Bedford, Massachusetts, 1858.
Townsend U. Weekes, Oyster Bay, New York, by 1972.
Gallery Mayo, Richmond, Virginia.
Private collection, Richmond, Virginia, acquired from the above.
Bequest to the present owner from the above.

Literature

H.T. Tuckerman, Book of the Artists: American Artist Life, New York, 1867, p. 388.
G. Hendricks, Albert Bierstadt: Painter of the American West, New York, 1974, pp. 52, 57, illustrated (as dated 1858).

Exhibited

New Bedford, Massachusetts, New Bedford Art Exhibition, July 1-August 7, 1858, no. 148.
Fort Worth, Texas, Amon Carter Museum; Washington, D.C., Corcoran Gallery of Art; New Bedford, Massachusetts, The Whaling Museum; New York, Whitney Museum of American Art and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Albert Bierstadt, January 27, 1972-January 3, 1973, p. 45, no. 12.
Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn Museum; San Francisco, California, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco and Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Albert Bierstadt: Art & Enterprise, February 8, 1991-February 17, 1992, p. 128, no. 4, illustrated.

Lot Essay

H.T. Tuckerman cites the present work as the best of Bierstadt's early career, writing, "The work which gives the highest promise of those which Bierstadt executed at this period, is one called 'The Old Mill'--which he painted during his first summer, while on a pedestrian tour in Westphalia [Germany]. It is full of homely truth and rural beauty, and has a rare local fidelity and freshness, and a genial simplicity which reminds one of the most naive and candid aspects of life and nature in the Old World." (Book of the Artists: American Artist Life, New York, 1867, p. 388)

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