Books and Manuscripts

Bierstadt, Albert
The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak
London: Thomas McLean, 1869. Chromolithographic printer's proof, by Jacob Lutz after Bierstadt; signed by Bierstadt in stone bottom right. 24 1/8 x 35 in. (613 x 889 mm). Soiling along edges, scattered short closed tears and repairs in same; foxing in top edge; small holes in top right edge and bottom left edge. In mat and in frame, 31 x 43 1/2 in. (787 x 1105 mm). From the collection of Alfred L. Bush (1933-2020), curator of Western Americana at Princeton University Library.

Rare printer's proof of Albert Bierstadt's stunning view of Lander's Peak in Wyoming. This dramatic scene shows a Shoshone encampment and surrounding forest in the foreground, and the snow-capped ridge of the Rocky Mountains in the background. Considered the “chronicler par excellence of the American West” (Deak), Bierstadt executed the painting this chromolithograph is based on in 1863, following an expedition by the artist in 1859 as part of Colonel Frederick W. Lander's Honey Road Survey Party. The painting was done as a tribute to Lander, who died in the Civil War, in 1863. The massive six- by ten-foot painting, now held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, catapulted Bierstadt to overnight fame, and it remained a “paradigm of American subject matter for many years” (Met, American Paintings, 1965). This print was issued by Thomas McLean in 1869 along with Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie (not present).