Rowboat (from Sketchbook)
ca. 1891
Medium
Graphite on wove paper with gilt edges, bound in a leather cover
Dimensions
4 3/4 x 7 3/4 x 7/16 in. (12.1 x 19.7 x 1.1 cm)
Classification
Drawing
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Marguerite H. Rohlfs, 1995
Accession Number
1995.379.3p recto
Tags
Art Historical Context
Nestled within a luxurious leather-bound sketchbook with gilt-edged pages, *Rowboat (from Sketchbook)* by Albert Bierstadt offers a rare glimpse into the intimate workings of one of America's foremost landscape painters. Created around 1891, this modest graphite drawing on wove paper—measuring just 4 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches—depicts a simple rowboat evoking the quiet beauty of everyday maritime life. Bierstadt, a leading figure in the Hudson River School, was renowned for his dramatic, luminist vistas of the American West, but this piece reveals his skill in capturing fleeting observations during tr...
About the Artist
Albert Bierstadt · 1830–1902
Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) was a German-American landscape painter renowned for his monumental, luminous depictions of the American West. As a prominent member of the second generation of the Hudson River School and the Rocky Mountain School, Bierstadt created sweeping panoramas that captured the sublime grandeur of untamed wilderness with unprecedented theatrical scale and romantic vision. His ...