Albert Bierstadt, Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California

Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) traveled west in 1858 and produced many paintings depicting the Rocky Mountains, Yosemite Valley, and other dramatic locales. These works such as Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, present breathtaking scenery and natural beauty.

This panoramic view (the painting is 10 feet wide) is awe inspiring. Deer and waterfowl appear at the edge of a placid lake, and steep and rugged mountains soar skyward on the left and in the distance. A stand of trees, uncultivated and wild, frames the lake on the right. To underscore the transcendental nature of this scene, Bierstadt depicted the sun’s rays breaking through the clouds overhead, suggesting a heavenly consecration of the land. That Bierstadt’s focus was the American West is not insignificant. By calling national attention to the splendor and uniqueness of the regions beyond the Rocky Mountains, Bierstadt’s paintings reinforced the idea of Manifest Destiny. This popular nineteenth-century doctrine held that westward expansion across the continent was the logical destiny of the United States. Paintings of the scenic splendor of the West helped to mute growing concerns over the realities of conquest, the displacement of Native Americans, and the exploitation of the environment. It should come as no surprise that among those most eager to purchase Bierstadt’s work were mail-service magnates and railroad builders – entrepreneurs and financiers involved in westward expansion.^[1]