Albert BierstadtAmerican, 1830–1902Rocky Mountains, "Lander's Peak"
Can I see it?
Yes, on view now
Where is “Rocky Mountains, "Lander's Peak"” now? Harvard Art Museums, Gallery 2100, floor 2, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, Cambridge. Yes, on view now. Checked October 12, 2026.
Cambridge, United States
Room2100, floor 2, European and American Art, 17th–19th century
On public display.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
This painting is based on sketches that Bierstadt completed in 1859 while serving on a U.S. government survey expedition led by Frederic W. Lander. Upon his return to New York, Bierstadt painted the work, which presents a composite scene rather than an accurate topographical rendering. Notably absent from the landscape are the Eastern Shoshone people, who have lived in and around the depicted Wind River Mountain Range for thousands of years.
Read on
Though the artist met and sketched Shoshone Tribe members during the survey, by omitting them from this landscape Bierstadt visually reinforced the false and harmful myth of the “vanishing Indian.” He presents the American West as a new Eden, bathed in rays of heavenly sunlight. This representation promoted the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, which was used to justify removal and genocide of Indigenous peoples in the name of divinely sanctioned westward expansion.
Harvard Art Museums
Details
- Accession number
- 1895.698
In the catalog
Sources
- Harvard Art Museums
- Image: Harvard Art Museums — © President and Fellows of Harvard College
In the life of Albert Bierstadt
The whole lifeDecember 1861
“Guerrilla Warfare” shown in Brooklyn
Bierstadt based this Civil War painting on his brief stay with soldiers at Camp Cameron in 1861 and on a stereoscopic photograph by his brother Edward. Shown by the Brooklyn Art Association at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, it received a favourable review.
1863
West again, with the writer Fitz Hugh Ludlow
Bierstadt's companion was the writer Fitz Hugh Ludlow, whose wife he later married; the two spent seven weeks in the Yosemite Valley. Studies from the trip fed his huge exhibition canvases through the 1860s, which made him the pre-eminent painter of the American West.
1863
A first ascent: Mount Rosalie in Colorado
With the politician William Byers, Bierstadt made the first ascent of a 4,348-metre peak and named it Rosalie after Fitz Hugh Ludlow's wife, his own future wife (other accounts call it Mount Rosa; in 1895 it was renamed Evans). The same year he was the first to climb a neighbouring 4,287-metre peak, which still bears his name.
1863
Drafted — and pays for a substitute
During the Civil War Bierstadt was drafted and paid for a substitute to serve in his place.
1865
“The Rocky Mountains” sells for $25,000
“The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak” was bought for $25,000 — almost $400,000 in 2020 money: financial recognition confirmed his standing.
