Museum Collections
Luce Center
Donner Lake From the Summit
Object Number:
1909.16
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 )
Marks:
signed: at lower left: "A. Bierstadt"
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.
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
Credit Line:
Gift of Archer Milton Huntington
Due to ongoing research, information about this object is subject to change.





