The Rocky Mountains, final proof
date: label: Date made
content: 1866
name: label: copyright holder
content: Bierstadt, Edward
label: engraver
content: Smillie, James
label: publisher
content: Bierstadt, Edward
label: original artist
content: Bierstadt, Albert
label: originator
content: Bierstadt, Albert
notes: label: Description
content: Albert Bierstadt's (1830–1902) large painting, <I>The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak</I>, completed in 1863, presented the drama of the American West to audiences in the Eastern United States. Although it was more than a decade after the Gold Rush drew settlers to California, most people still had not seen many images of the West. Bierstadt specialized in these landscapes, and he produced impressive paintings of Yosemite and other Western scenes.
label: Description
content: <I>The Rocky Mountains</I> was Bierstadt's first big success, and he quickly developed a marketing strategy to promote his work. He contracted with engraver James Smillie (1807–1885) to produce a large black-and-white reproductive print. Then he sent the painting on tour, to be exhibited in art galleries in several eastern cities, accompanied by a subscription book and promotional flyers describing the engraving. It was available in four versions, from a limited number of artists' proofs priced at $50 each to an unlimited edition of plain proofs at $10 each. The painting was shown in 1864 at Civil War Sanitary Commission fairs in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, before being sold to an English businessman. Since 1907 it has been in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
label: Description
content: Public exhibitions in commercial galleries, together with the growth of the print trade, expanded opportunities for people to see paintings and purchase reproductions. Throughout his career, Bierstadt issued prints after his paintings, using many different graphic processes. Publishing prints enhanced an artist's reputation and added significantly to his income, but engraving on steel was a slow and painstaking process. It took Smillie more than three years to complete his work.
label: Description
content: In 1888 the Museum received this final state of the print directly from Bierstadt, and Smillie's son George donated an early etched proof. Both states were exhibited together to demonstrate the process of engraving.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Associated Place
content: Rocky Mountains
topic: label: Subject
content: Indians
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Graphic Arts
label: See more items in
content: Art
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Anderson, Nancy K.; Ferber, Linda S.; Wright, Helena E.. Albert Bierstadt, Art & Enterprise
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Albert Bierstadt
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: GA.00731
label: accession number
content: 20356
label: catalog number
content: 00731
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Print
label: Object Name
content: print
label: Object Name
content: engraving
label: Object Type
content: Engraving
label: Other Terms
content: Print; Engraving
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: image: 43 cm x 70.5 cm; 16 15/16 in x 27 3/4 in