Albert Bierstadt immigrated from Germany to New Bedford, Massachusetts, as an infant. He later went back to Germany to study art at the Düsseldorf Academy before returning to the United States to join the Hudson River School. After the gold rush to California, Bierstadt was part of an 1859 survey expedition, led by Frederick W. Lander, to scout a route for a railroad across the Rockies. Sponsored by the Union Pacific Railroad, over the next decade, he made several more such trips during which he painted scenes of California with the goal of attracting visitors and investors to the region. It was on one such journey to the Sierra Nevada in 1863 that Bierstadt saw the scene he later depicted in "Among the Sierra Nevada".