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Nature and the American Vision: The Hudson River School
Donner Lake From the Summit
Title
Donner Lake From the Summit
Date
1873
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Canvas: 72 1/8 x 120 3/16 in. ( 183.2 x 305.3 cm )Frame: 80 3/8 x 128 1/4 x 3 1/2 in. ( 204.2 x 325.8 x 8.9 cm )
Description
Landscape which depicts the summit at which the Central Railroad reaches its highest passage over the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in California; Donner Lake is below the mountain range.
Credit Line
Gift of Archer Milton Huntington
Object Number
1909.16
Marks
signed: at lower left: "A. Bierstadt"
Gallery Label
This painting was commissioned by Collis P. Huntington, the railroad king. The scene was taken from a study made by Bierstadt on his trip to the West between the years 1871 to 1873. The painting is also titled "View of Donner Lake,California."
Bibliography
Walther, Susan Danly, Guest Curator, The Railroad in the American Landscape: 1850-1950, Wellesley, MA: The Wellesley College Museum, April 15-June 8, 1981, p. 49.
Koke, Richard J., American Landscape and Genre Paintings in the New York Historical Society, Vol. II, New York: The New-York Historical Society, 1982, pp. 43, 45.
Anderson, Nancy K., Ferber, Linda S., Albert Bierstadt: Art & Exchange," New York: The Brooklyn Museum, in association with Hudson Hills Press, 1990, pp. 37-8, 58-9, 95-8, 220, 226-7.
Belli, Gabriella, Giocomoni, Paula, Cavina, Anna Ottani, Montagna: Arte, scienza, mito da Durer a Warhol, Milan, Italy: Skira, 2003, p. 358.
Murphy, Kevin Michael, Economics of Style: The Business Practices of American Artists and the Structure of the Market, 1850-1910, PhD Dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara, September 2005, pp. 153-4, 163-5, 172, 201, 204-5, 207.
Bugard, Timothy Anglin, General Editor, Masterworks of American Painting at the De Young, San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2005, pp. 121-4
Due to ongoing research, information about this object is subject to change.
