How does Among the Sierra Nevada, California elucidate its Exhibition and provenance?
The painting was first shown in London the summer after its creation – along with two other works by the artist. It was then shown at the Royal Academy in Berlin, where it earned a Gold Medal. It was later exhibited in Paris, Moscow and Saint Petersburg. A consummate promoter of his own work, Bierstadt presumably hoped to raise the price of the piece by exhibiting it around Europe. He would plant stories in newspapers and sell tickets to his exhibitions, turning the unveiling of his work into a theatrical event.Bierstadt took the painting to the United States in 1869 and sold it to Alvin Adams, an art collector in Boston. Adams had also owned another Bierstadt piece, Lake Lucerne (1858). In 1873, Among the Sierra Nevada was acquired by William Brown Dinsmore (1810–1888), a businessman who wanted it for his country villa Locusts on Hudson in Dutchess County, New York. It passed down to his great-granddaughter, Helen Huntington Hull. Locusts on Hudson was demolished, and Hull had a new home built on the property in 1941. As part of the interior decoration, she had Among the Sierra Nevada removed from its frame and glued to an interior wall in the new house.Hull died in 1976 leaving the painting as a bequest to the Smithsonian Institution. William Truettner, a curator for the Smithsonian, was sent to Hull's house to retrieve the painting and also found the original ornate gilded frame—in four pieces but in good condition—in a barn on the property. Conservators spent about 600 hours to clean the painting, including the glue from the back of the canvas, before it was remounted on the original frame. In 1985, the painting became a centerpiece of the 19th-century landscape collection at Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Dutchess County landscape Berlin canvas Smithsonian American Art Museum Locusts on Hudson Royal Academy Moscow Sierra Nevada Boston Smithsonian Institution William Brown Dinsmore Lake Lucerne Dutchess County, New York Saint Petersburg Alvin Adams London Paris Helen Huntington Hull