White Mountains, New Hampshire
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966
Accession Number
66.502
About this artwork
Florence Lewison Gallery, New York, to 1963
Art Historical Context
Albert Bierstadt’s *White Mountains, New Hampshire* captures the serene majesty of the American Northeast in 1857, a time when artists were helping shape a national identity through the celebration of native landscapes. Born in Germany and raised in the United States, Bierstadt became a leading figure of the Hudson River School, known for his luminous depictions of untamed wilderness that blended precise observation with romantic grandeur. This early work, created before his celebrated journeys west, reveals his growing fascination with light and atmosphere in the rugged terrain of New England...