“Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point Trail”
Oh, the sublime!
“Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point Trail” is a beautiful atmospheric oil on canvas painting by the German American artist, Albert Bierstadt, from 1873. Bierstadt was part of the Hudson River as well as the Rocky Mountain School of art.
In this painting, the Yosemite Valley is painted in all its sublime and wild glory. An atmospheric quality to the air slightly veils the sun which beams strongly in the background, casting an illuminating glow across the landscape. On the lower left of the canvas, four small figures in the foreground, two on horseback, help to lend perspective to the overall scope of the painting. One of the figures, presumably a guide, points to the vista.
In 1859, Bierstadt joined a survey expedition with a friend and made his first trip out west. This was a journey that he would make multiple times throughout his life. He was enamored by the dramatic mountains, the rolling plains, the indigenous people, and the wildlife. His paintings of Yosemite Valley were so well-received, that most every explorer during the great westward expansion requested his companionship for his ability to document their adventures in a sublime way.
This wonderfully romanticized painting of the American West fed the imagination of the public. They still very much saw the West as nature in its raw and pure form and saw opportunities there for everyone in terms of land and gold. Especially after the ravages of the American Civil War, the unspoiled lands promised to settlers in the West offered a new beginning. With the trans-continental railroad now complete, tourists were able to access more remote areas previously inaccessible. The wild landscapes of Yosemite, the Rocky Mountains, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains were unlike anything seen before.
“Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point Trail” is currently on display at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut in the United States.
For more on Albert Bierstadt, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
