Among the Sierra Nevada, California

Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902) immigrated from Germany to New Bedford, Massachusetts, as an infant. He later went back to Germany to study art at the Düsseldorf Academy before returning to the United States and becoming part of the Hudson River School. After the gold rush to California, Bierstadt was part of an 1859 survey expedition, led by Frederick W. Lander, to scout a route for a railroad across the Rockies. Sponsored by the Union Pacific Railroad, over the next decade, he made several more such trips during which he painted scenes of California with the goal of attracting visitors and investors to the region. It was on such a journey to the Sierra Nevada in 1863 that Bierstadt may have seen what he later depicted in Among the Sierra Nevada. == Description ==

Among the Sierra Nevada was created in Rome in winter 1867–68, four years after Bierstadt's trip to the Sierra Nevada. The painting measures and has an elaborate frame measuring . The painting depicts rugged mountains on the left and background that reach out to a bright sky with the Sun's rays peeking through the clouds. The mountains look over a calm lake with a group of elk and waterfowl on its edge and is bordered by trees on the right side of the painting. On the viewer's left in the water under the shadow of the rocks, there is a single trout, only visible when viewed very closely. == Exhibition and provenance ==

The painting was first shown in London the summer after its creation – along with two other works by the artist. It was then shown at the Royal Academy in Berlin, where it earned a gold medal. In 1873, Among the Sierra Nevada was acquired by William Brown Dinsmore (1810–1888), a businessman who wanted it for his country villa Locusts on Hudson in Dutchess County, New York. It passed down to his great-granddaughter, Helen Huntington Hull. Locusts on Hudson was demolished, and Hull had a new home built on the property in 1941. As part of the interior decoration, she had Among the Sierra Nevada removed from its frame and glued to an interior wall in the new house. Hull died in 1976 leaving the painting as a bequest to the Smithsonian Institution. William Truettner, a curator for the Smithsonian, was sent to Hull's house to retrieve the painting and also found the original ornate gilded frame—in four pieces but in good condition—in a barn on the property. Conservators spent about 600 hours to clean the painting, including the glue from the back of the canvas, before it was remounted on the original frame. In 1985, the painting became a centerpiece of the 19th-century landscape collection at Smithsonian American Art Museum. ==See also==