Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009140Mount Starr King, Yosemite
Also known as: Half Dome, Yosemite Valley; Starr King Mountain, California
About the Artwork
During the summer of 1863, Bierstadt visited Yosemite Valley in California and made numerous sketches. Back in his New York studio, he used them to produce many majestic paintings, including this view of the distant granite peak Mount Starr King. Such scenes thrilled East Coast audiences and helped encourage early movements to safeguard natural wonders. In 1864, President Lincoln signed a bill preserving Yosemite as public property; it became a national park in 1890. Bierstadt included two Native Americans with a packhorse in his composition, and their presence references the fact that Indigenous peoples had inhabited or seasonally visited the region for millennia. Over time, various government and military agencies dispossessed them of these ancestral lands. Although no longer residents in the national park, descendants of the seven Indigenous nations with ties to Yosemite persevered to live in neighboring areas.
Inscriptions
signed lower right: ABierstadt. / 66 [AB in monogram]
Provenance
Chester Guild Cutter (1852–1917), Nyack, NY, purchased from the artist Frank E. Marshall (1857–1915), Philadelphia, PA 1922: [Vose Gallery, Boston, MA] 1922-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, purchased in 1922
Exhibition history
The Artist in the American West, 1800-1900. Santa Fe Musuem of Art (co-organizer). Inaugural Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (June 6-September 20, 1916). The World of the Romantic Artist: A Survey of American Culture from 1800-1875. The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (organizer) (co-organizer) (December 28, 1944-January 28, 1945). The Hudson River School and the Early American Landscape Tradition. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (co-organizer) (February 15-March 25, 1945); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (April 17-May 18, 1945). American Artists Discover America. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (February 2-25, 1946). A Retrospective Exhibition: Albert Bierstadt 1830-1902. Santa Barbara Museum of Art (organizer) (August 5-September 13, 1964). The Mythology of the American West. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, Rouen, France (organizer) (September 28, 2007-January 7, 2008); Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, Rennes, France (February 18-May 18, 2008).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Albert Bierstadt (American, born Prussia [now Germany], 1830–1902)
- Date
- 1866
- Medium
- oil on canvas on panel-back stretcher
- Dimensions
- Framed: 135.3 x 181 x 15.6 cm (53 1/4 x 71 1/4 x 6 1/8 in.); Unframed: 97 x 142.3 cm (38 3/16 x 56 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- American Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection
- Accession no.
- 1922.684
More by Albert Bierstadt in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00009140
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