1940.299: In the Sierras

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1940.299

People

Albert Bierstadt, American (Solingen (near Dusseldorf), Germany 1830 - 1902 New York, NY)

Title

In the Sierras

Other Titles

Former Title: Landscape
Former Title: Lake Tahoe

Classification

Paintings

Work Type

painting

Date

1868

Places

Creation Place: North America, United States

Culture

American

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/230235

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

33 x 40.6 cm (13 x 16 in.)
framed: 52.7 x 60.6 x 7 cm (20 3/4 x 23 7/8 x 2 3/4 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: l.r: AB [monogram] 68

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Acquired by Abijah Curtiss, c. 1880 [1], by descent; to his son, Frederic Haines Curtiss, Boston, MA [2]; gift of Mr. and Mrs. Frederic Haines Curtiss to the Fogg Art Museum, 1940.

[1] On November 13, 1940, Curtiss wrote to Paul Sachs that "the picture by Bierstadt, I imagine was purchased by my father in the '[18]80s, but I am not sure." (copy of letter in curatorial file)

[2] Abijah Curtiss did not bequeath "In the Sierras" directly to his son Frederic H. Curtiss in his will (probated August 7, 1888). Therefore, it must have descended in the family.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Frederic Haines Curtiss

Accession Year

1940

Object Number

1940.299

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

• Jules David Prown and Barbara Rose, American Painting: From the Colonial Period to the Present, Skira Rizzoli (New York), pp. 64-65, ill. p. 65
• Fitz Hugh Ludlow, The Heart of the Continent, Hurd and Houghton (New York, NY, 1870)
• Richard S. Trump, "Life and Works of Albert Bierstadt" (Thesis, Ohio State University, 1963), Unpublished and Ohio State University, p. 221
• Luminous Landscape: The American Study of Light, 1860-1875, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1966), no. 4, pp. 16-17
• Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture from the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, exh. cat., Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, 1967), n.p.
• Jules David Prown, American Painting: From Its Beginnings to the Armory Show, Skira (New York, NY, 1969), ill. p. 69
• Kenyon Castle Bolton, III, Peter G. Huenink, Earl A. Powell III, Harry Z. Rand, and Nanette C. Sexton, American Art at Harvard, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1972), cat. 75, ill.
• Gordon Hendricks, Albert Bierstadt: Painter of the American West, exh. cat., Harry N. Abrams, Inc./Amon Carter Museum (Fort Worth, TX, 1974), c-114
• Robert Rosenblum, Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic Tradition: Friedrich to Rothko, Harper & Row (New York, NY, 1975), p. 202, reproduced in b/w no. 296
• John Howett and Paula Hancock, The New Image, exh. cat., High Museum of Art (Atlanta, GA, 1975), reproduced
• Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., The Hudson River School: 19th Century American Landscapes in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (Hartford, CT, 1976), p. 72, no. 43, fig. 43a,
• Ross E. Taggart, Kaleidoscope of American Painting: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, exh. cat., William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (now Nelson-Atkins) (Kansas City, MO, 1977), p. 53, cat. 62, ill.
• François Mathey, American Realism: A Pictorial Survey from the Early Eighteenth Century to the 1970s, Rizzoli (New York, NY, 1978), reproduced in b/w p. 48
• Jean-Louis Ferrier, ed., Art of Our Century, Prentice-Hall Editions (New York, NY, 1989), reproduced in color p. 38
• Timothy Anglin Burgard, American Art at Harvard: Cultures and Contexts, brochure, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1994), p. 12, cat. 71
• Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Virginia Anderson, and Kimberly Orcutt, ed., American Paintings at Harvard, Volume Two, Paintings, Drawings, Pastels and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856, Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press (U.S.) (Cambridge, MA and New Haven, CT, 2008), p. 47-48, cat. no. 22, reproduced in color, p. 47

Exhibition History

• Take Care: The Conservation of Paintings, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, 01/18/1954 - 02/28/1954; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, 03/10/1954 - 04/25/1954
• Unidentified Exhibition, Harvard Club of New York, 1956, Harvard Club of New York City, New York, 03/01/1956 - 03/31/1956
• Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture from the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, 10/12/1967 - 12/03/1967
• American Art at Harvard, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/19/1972 - 06/18/1972
• American West, National Museum in Warsaw, Warsaw, 01/08/1974 - 02/17/1974; Sala Dallas, Bucharest, 03/01/1974 - 03/22/1974; Palace of Culture, Iasi, 03/29/1974 - 04/10/1974; Banatul Museum, Timisoara, 04/19/1974 - 05/05/1974; Ethnographic Museum of Zagreb, Zagreb, 05/13/1974 - 06/09/1974; Fine Arts Gallery of the City of Skopje, Skopje, 06/17/1974 - 07/07/1974; Belgrade Cultural Center, Belgrade, 07/15/1974 - 07/31/1974; Cultural Information Center, Sarajevo, 08/14/1974 - 08/25/1974
• Kaleidoscope of American Painting: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, 12/02/1977 - 01/22/1978
• A New World, American Landscape Painting, National Museum Stockholm, Stockholm, 09/18/1986 - 11/23/1986; Gothenburg Art Museum, Gothenburg, 12/06/1986 - 02/15/1987
• American Art at Harvard: Cultures and Contexts, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/01/1994 - 12/30/1994
• Re-View: S424-426 Western Art from 1560 to 1900, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/16/2008 - 06/18/2011
• 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/31/2019 - 01/08/2020; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/04/2021 - 01/02/2022

Subjects and Contexts

• Google Art Project

Verification Level