Artwork
Mount Starr King, Yosemite
Mount Starr King, Yosemite is an oil painting by the Hudson River School artist Albert Bierstadt. It dates from 1866 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Executed in oil on canvas in 1866, the painting belongs to the landscape genre and was acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it remains on view.
Mount Starr King, Yosemite portrays the Yosemite Valley in California, centering on the eponymous peak and a solitary tree within the vista. The work records the region’s distinctive topography, emphasizing a towering mountain and a foreground tree that together convey the grandeur of the American West. Executed in oil on canvas in 1866, the painting belongs to the landscape genre and was acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it remains on view.
Technique & Style
Mount Starr King, Yosemite is executed in oil paint, classified as a landscape painting. According to the catalogued materials, the support combines canvas and panel, indicating a mixed-support construction beneath the oil medium. The work measures 97 cm in height by 142.3 cm in width, producing a horizontal format suited to its panoramic Yosemite subject.
Painted in 1866 by Albert Bierstadt, the piece belongs to the landscape genre and depicts the California terrain of Yosemite Valley, including its mountain and tree forms. The combination of oil paint over a canvas-and-panel ground is consistent with mid-nineteenth-century American landscape practice, allowing Bierstadt to render the geological mass of Mount Starr King and the surrounding valley with the layered luminosity associated with his Hudson River School–aligned manner. No specific handling notes, condition reports, or stylistic analyses are documented in the available sources.
History & Provenance
Mount Starr King, Yosemite is an oil-on-canvas landscape by Albert Bierstadt dated 1866. According to the Wikidata record for the work, it was created in 1866 and depicts Yosemite Valley in California, including its distinctive mountain and tree features. The painting entered the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it is currently held.
The sources do not provide information on a commissioning patron, the circumstances of its creation during Bierstadt's 1866 sketching trip, intermediate ownership, acquisition date, or purchase price, so the provenance chain prior to and including the museum's acquisition cannot be reconstructed from the available material.
Albert Bierstadt's 1866 oil painting Mount Starr King, Yosemite is held in the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio. The work is cataloged under the accession number 221.1922 within the museum's records. While the painting depicts the specific geography of Yosemite Valley in California, its institutional history is anchored to this single major American repository.
The provided sources confirm its current location and inventory designation but do not contain specific details regarding past or future exhibition schedules or loan histories for this particular artwork.
Overview
"Mount Starr King, Yosemite" is an oil painting that captures a dramatic natural scene. The composition features a towering mountain peak rising behind a tranquil forest, with a river meandering through the foreground. The artist employs light to create a warm, inviting atmosphere, highlighting elements within the expansive landscape. Two small figures near the water's edge provide a sense of human scale against the vast wilderness.
Context
This painting aligns with the artistic practice of Albert Bierstadt, known for his grand landscape depictions of the American West. His works often emphasize the sublime beauty and vastness of nature, frequently featuring dramatic lighting and monumental scale. "Mount Starr King, Yosemite" exemplifies his characteristic style, inviting viewers to contemplate the awe-inspiring power and serenity of the natural world, a common theme across his extensive body of work.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German-American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West.
