Object Details
Artist
Albert Bierstadt, born Solingen, Germany 1830-died New York City 1902
Luce Center Label
Albert Bierstadt traveled through western Canada in 1889 on the Canadian Pacific Railway. He headed to Alaska by steamer in search of "wild places in the mountains," but was shipwrecked in Loring Bay. He lived with the other passengers in Native American huts and filled two books with drawings and paintings of his surroundings. (Anderson and Ferber, Albert Bierstadt: Art and Enterprise, 1990) This painting of the Alaskan coastline is an oil sketch, probably done on the spot as a study for a later work. The cool colors and thin layers of paint evoke the raw atmosphere of the wilderness where Bierstadt found himself stranded.
Credit Line
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Orrin Wickersham June
Date
ca. 1889
Object number
1967.136.7
Restrictions & Rights
CC0
Type
Painting
Medium
oil on paper mounted on paperboard
Dimensions
13 7/8 x 19 3/8 in. (35.2 x 49.2 cm)
See more items in
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department
Painting and Sculpture
Data Source
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Topic
Landscape\mountain
Landscape\Alaska
Landscape\coast
Link to Original Record
Record ID
saam_1967.136.7