San Francisco Bay
1871-1873
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Frank McClure
Accession Number
1979.98.440
Tags
Art Historical Context
Albert Bierstadt's *San Francisco Bay* (1871-1873), an oil painting from the Smithsonian American Museum's collection, captures the majestic coastline of California's iconic waterway during a transformative era in American history. As a leading figure of the Hudson River School,stadt was renowned for his grand, romantic landscapes that celebrated the untamed beauty of the American. This work, bequeathed by Frank McClure, reflects his travels through California in the 1860s and early 1870s, amid the Gold Rush's lingering excitement and the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, wh...
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 ...