American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists Featuring the Collection of Virginia and Stuart Peltz

Note

Best remembered for his panoramic views of the dramatically-abrupt Rocky Mountains, Albert Bierstadt in fact began his career as a painter of European landscapes. In 1856, while studying abroad through Europe, the German-born artist spent time in Switzerland and Italy, together with Worthington Whittredge, whom he met in Germany. There, he completed several plein air sketches around Lucerne that would lead to studio paintings, such as the present work. Instead of focusing on the very touristic lake, the artist here depicts a panoramic view of the Swiss Alps, with a herd of cows in the foreground, which seem to announce Bierstadt's later romantic canvases set in the Hudson River Valley. The artist's picturesque landscapes of the Swiss region were painted with minutiae and a special attention to lighting, as exemplified here. In many ways, Bierstadt's sojourn and training in the Alps was essential as it prepared him to record the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevadas in painstaking detail as he traveled through the US.

We wish to thank Melissa Speidel, Director of the Albert Bierstadt Catalogue Raisonné Project, for kindly confirming the authenticity of the present Lot. A letter of authenticity dated October 2021 will accompany the painting.