America / 1866
Mount Starr King, Yosemite
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Mount Starr King, Yosemite as painting (America · 1866).
Highly successful, Bierstadt built a mansion and named it Malkasten, a German word meaning “paintbox.”
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this painting as oil on canvas on panel-back stretcher and credits Albert Bierstadt (American, born Prussia [now Germany], 1830–1902).
The museum's collection notes: During the summer of 1863, Bierstadt visited Yosemite Valley in California and made numerous sketches. Back in his New York studio, he used them to produce many majestic paintings, including this view of the distant granite peak Mount Starr King. Such scenes thrilled East Coast audiences and helped encourage early movements to safeguard natural wonders. In 1864, President Lincoln signed a bill preserving Yosemite as public property; it became a national park in 1890. Bierstadt included two Native Americans with a packhorse in his composition, and their presence references the fact that Indigenous peoples had inhabited or seasonally visited th
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtMount Starr King, YosemiteOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.