Albert Bierstadt

(American, 1830-1902)

Golden Gate, c. 1871-1873

oil on paper laid to board

signed with conjoined initials ABierstadt (lower right)

12 x 17 1/2 inches.

Property from the Estate of Spitalny Pearson, Phoenix, Arizona

We wish to thank Melissa Webster Speidel, President of the Bierstadt Foundation and Director of the Albert Bierstadt catalogue raisonné project, for her kind assistance in cataloguing this lot. This painting will be included in her database being compiled on the artist's work.

Provenance:

Private Collection, New York

By descent through the family to the present owner

Lot essay:

From 1871-1873, Bierstadt spent most of his time in San Francisco, California, using the city as a base to explore California. He established a studio at the top of Clay Street, overlooking the San Francisco Bay. Here, he produced many oil sketches of the Bay Area and several finished oil paintings.

Throughout his career, the artist produced dozens of cloud studies, a group in which Golden Gate is included. In the present work, he focused on the low-hanging bank of fog, with the filtered sunlight highlighting the clouds’ shapes. The water, landscape, and boats are sketchily but deftly rendered. The sun has broken through the fog in the distance, bathing the far hills in light. It exemplifies his mastery at creating the illusion of depth even in the simplest of landscapes.

Similar oil sketches of the Bay Area include Port Richmond, Bay of San Francisco (Christie’s, New York, December 4, 2008, Lot 68) and Alcatraz, San Francisco Bay, 1875 (Bonham’s, New York, November 22, 2010, Lot 11). At approximately the same size as Golden Gate, and also oil on paper, the focus of these oil studies is the clouds and play of light and dark to reveal their forms.

Golden Gate, c. 1871-1873

Golden Gate, c. 1871-1873