Yosemite Valley
Yosemite Valley, Albert Bierstadt (American, 1830 - 1902) 1866
221.1922
Gallery 15 | American Art: From Sea to Shining Sea, 1825–1875
Albert Bierstadt visited California's Yosemite Valley in the summer of 1863 during one of his lengthy tours of the American West. On his return to New York, he produced numerous paintings based on sketches he had made. Such views thrilled East Coast audiences who had heard reports of grand mountains rivalling the Alps of Europe. The Native American couple standing in the foreground helps convey the enormous scale of Yosemite's snow-capped peaks and marks this scene as distinctly American.
Fashionable and expensive, paintings like this also spurred early movements to save the country's natural wonders. In 1864, President Lincoln signed a bill preserving Yosemite as public property; it became a national park in 1890.
Images Copyright © the artist, their estate, and/or the Cleveland Museum of Art.
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