Albert Bierstadt: The Path to California, 1830-74

Albert Bierstadt, whose career as an American landscape painter spanned the entire second half of the nineteenth century, was one of the most important and most successful artists of his era. Less frequently the subject of scholarly attention than his great rival Frederic Church, Bierstadt remains a somewhat elusive figure. The present study, which represents the initial phase of a longer investigation, attempts to establish firm biographical data for the first forty-four years of the artist's life (1830-1874), while examining Bierstadt's development as a painter. The broad divisions of the study focus on Bierstadt's early career in New Bedford and Boston (1830-1853), his travel and training in Europe (1853-1857), his first trip west and emergence as an artist of national stature (1857-1859), his first trip to California and the major paintings which resulted from the journey (1863-1867), and finally, his second sojourn in California (1870-1874). In an attempt to place Bierstadt's work within an appropriate cultural context, much attention has been paid to concurrent historical, literary, artistic, and social events. Thus the outbreak of the Civil War, the development of photography, and the completion of the transcontinental railroad are all examined in terms of their impact on Bierstadt's art. Bierstadt achieved his greatest success with images of the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, and Yosemite Valley. Contemporary response to such paintings was based on a complex mixture of geographic nationalism, the lingering romance of Ruskinian mountain glory, and the remnants of the American Edenic myth. When placed within the context of the culture for which they were created, Bierstadt's finest paintings emerge as far more than grand panoramas of awesome scenery. They carry within their carefully crafted borders, references to some of the most perplexing issues of the day including the destruction of the landscape which they celebrate.