The Trappers' Camp Artist: Albert Bierstadt (American, born Germany, 1830–1902)

1861

American Paintings and Sculpture

Not on view

Mountain men came to symbolize the American West, a land of promise and abundance. Under a moonlit sky, Albert Bierstadt’s trappers are at home in the dark, mysterious wilderness. Based on sketches he made during his first trip west in 1859 accompanying Frederick William Lander’s surveying expedition to Montana, Bierstadt later created landscapes such as this one in his New York studio. Painted on the eve of the Civil War, his frontier scenes offered a rustic, idyllic vision of the West to anxious Easterners.

Medium

Oil on academy board

Dimensions

13 × 19 in. (33 × 48.3 cm)

Credit Line

Whitney Collections of Sporting Art Fund, given in memory of Harry Payne Whitney, B.A. 1894, and Payne Whitney, B.A. 1898, by Francis P. Garvan, B.A. 1897, M.A. (Hon.) 1922

Accession Number

1969.48

Geography

Made in United States

Culture

American

Period

19th century

Classification

Paintings

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Bibliography
  • Helen A. Cooper et al., Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2008), 282–83, no. 174, ill
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

landscapes (representations)

Subject

campfires camps clouds figures (representations) fires frontier and pioneer life hunters moon mountains sky trappers trees

Inscriptions

Inscribed verso "The Trappers' Camp/Rocky Mountains/A. Bierstadt artist/Studio Building/ 15, 10th St., New York."

Signed

Signed lower right "A Bierstadt 1861"

Technical metadata and APIs

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