ALBERT BIERSTADT (after) The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak.
Steel engraving, 1866. 430x700 mm; 17x27 1/2 inches, full margins. Signed by Bierstadt in pencil, lower right. Engraved by James D. Smillie. A very good impression of this important engraving.
This monumental engraving shows a Plains Indian encampment at the foot of the Rocky Mountains where Bierstadt traveled in 1859 on an expedition led by Colonel Frederick W. Lander. Bierstadt created the the painting (now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) that this engraving was based on four years after the expedition, following the Colonel's death, and named the peak in honor of his friend. The painting was widely admired, as it aptly captured the mystique and beauty of the American West. It was sold by Bierstadt for the hefty sum of $25,000 in 1865, prompting the artist to commission an engraving after the composition. It took Smillie, the esteemed engraver and artist, three years to craft and publish the grandiloquent print. Bierstadt closely monitored the design of the print, checking in on its progress sometimes daily and requesting frequent proofs from the engraver.
