Western River

From Mattatuck Museum

Albert Bierstadt (created by)
Mattatuck Historical Soc (owned by)

1860s (Date manufactured/created)

Oil

mill board

A dramatic western sunset with a flat river meandering through the landscape. Scene probably the Platte River in Nebraska. Images of the Rocky Mountains that Bierstadt saw on his journey with Frederick Lander's parrt to the Continental Divide provided motifs for hte artist's major exhibition pieces throughout his career. At the same time smaller paintings like this one probably painted in the early 1860s capture a less-staged view of the wonders of the West. These small works have been recognized in the 20th C as among his most interesting paintings. Bierstadt was one of a group of landscape painters known as the 'Hudson River School'; but rather than New York and New England, he gained prominence though the painting of the American West.

Gift of Mildred Thaler Cohen, 1999. Seymour R. Thaler and Mildred Thaler Cohen Collection

Accession/ID Number 99.25.3