The Rocky Mountains, etched proof
date: label: Date made
content: 1865
name: label: engraver
content: Smillie, James
label: original artist
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. <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.
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. 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, in part because the painting was unavailable for him to copy. First Smillie drew the details of the image with a needle on a large steel plate, measuring 43 by 70.5 centimeters. This background image was etched in acid, and the Museum's copy is an early stage proof made "off the acid" to check Smillie's progress with the design. Several areas of the print remain to be completed. They were finished by hand with the engraver's cutting tool called the burin.
label: Description
content: In 1888 Smillie's son George donated this proof, which had been signed and dated by his father in 1865. Bierstadt also donated a signed impression of the final state of the print. 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
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content: Communications
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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 George H. Smillie
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: GA.00730
label: catalog number
content: 00730
label: accession number
content: 20355
objectType: label: Object Name
content: print
label: Object Name
content: engraving
label: Object Type
content: 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