Albert Bierstadt
Lake Lucerne
From $100
This is a painting about light breaking through cloud, and a dull copy turns the whole sky to mud. Our Albert Bierstadt Among the Sierra Nevada California print was graded beside the original, so the sunbeams still glow, the lake still mirrors the cliffs and the dark trees keep their detail.
Canvas, framed or paper
Stretched canvas. Printed on cotton canvas and stretched taut over a frame. The edges are mirror-wrapped, so the picture continues around the sides and none of it is lost to the fold.
Framed canvas. The same canvas, set in a black, white, natural wood or dark wood frame 0.83 in deep. The frame gives the work a finished edge and a little more presence on the wall.
Framed print. Printed on fine art matte paper and framed in solid pine, behind shatterproof plexiglass, in black, white, natural wood or dark wood. It arrives ready to hang. Framed sizes are measured on the outside of the frame.
Fine art print. Printed on 310gsm fine art matte paper, for framing your own way. It travels rolled and protected. From 18x24 inch.
Sizes
36x20 inch, 40x24 inch. Framed sizes are measured on the outside of the frame, so the visible painting is a little smaller.
On your wall
Its wide shape belongs above a sofa, a bed or a long sideboard, and at 40x24 inch it fills the wall like a window. The golds, greens and slate blues sit well with natural wood, stone and linen, and a dark wood frame suits it.
About the painting
Among the Sierra Nevada, California by Albert Bierstadt
Rome, 1868
Albert Bierstadt had travelled west with surveyors and spent seven weeks in Yosemite Valley in 1863. Four years later, in a studio in Rome, he painted a Sierra Nevada more perfect than the real one, almost two metres high and three wide.
A valley like a stage
Mountains rise on the left and behind, and a waterfall drops into a still lake. Sunbeams break through the clouds like stage lights. Animals and birds gather at the water’s edge, and if you look closely, there is a single trout in the shadow of the rocks.
The Hudson River School
Bierstadt showed it in London, won a gold medal in Berlin, and took it on to Paris, Moscow and St Petersburg before selling it in Boston. In 1941 an owner had it glued to a living-room wall; after 600 hours of conservation it hangs in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Read the story
Albert Bierstadt painted a perfect mountain valley in America, while he was living in Rome.
It's the winter of 1867, and Bierstadt is thirty-seven.
Four years earlier he travelled out west with a writer friend and spent seven weeks in Yosemite Valley, sketching rocks and waterfalls and trees.
Back east, he turned those sketches into enormous paintings, and people paid for tickets to see them unveiled.
Now he's famous, with a studio in Rome, and on a canvas almost two metres high and three wide, he paints the Sierra Nevada from memory, more perfect than any real place.
Grey cliffs rise on the left, and a waterfall drops into a still lake, while sunbeams break through the clouds like stage lights.
Animals gather at the water's edge. And if you look very closely, in the shadow of the rocks, there's a single trout.
He takes it to London, and to Berlin, where it wins a gold medal, and on to Paris and Moscow, before he sells it in America.
Seventy years later, an owner has it taken out of its frame and glued to the wall of her new house.
It stays there for thirty-five years. When it finally goes to the Smithsonian, the frame turns up in a barn, in four pieces, and it takes six hundred hours to set the painting free.
Today it hangs in Washington, back in its golden frame.
Look for the trout. It's still hiding.
Among the Sierra Nevada, California. Albert Bierstadt, 1868.
How each piece is brought to life
Faithful to the original, and made to be felt on your wall.
Graded against the original
We compare every work with the original as we grade it, keeping the artist’s colours true while bringing back their depth and glow. Every mark stays the artist’s own.
Printed for you
Printed to order on cotton canvas or fine art paper, then framed if you chose a frame, in 1 to 3 business days.
On your wall
It arrives 5 to 12 business days later, tracked and free anywhere in the US. Framed pieces come ready to hang.
Questions
Is this the original painting?
No. The original hangs in a museum. What you receive is a fine art reproduction, remastered from the original and printed for you, with every mark where the artist left it.
Will the colour look flat?
This is where most reproductions disappoint, and it is where we spend the most time. Each work is graded side by side with the original: faithful to the artist’s colours, with the depth and warmth brought back, so it moves you on the wall the way it was meant to. Canvas reads a touch softer than a backlit screen, and every screen shows colour a little differently.
Will the edges be cropped?
Each size is a standard frame size, so we fit the painting by trimming a little from its edges. We never stretch or squash it, and we check every size by eye so no face, figure or signature is cut. On canvas the edges are mirror-wrapped, which keeps the whole picture on the front.
Which size is right for my wall?
Aim for about two-thirds the width of the furniture beneath it. Over a sofa or a sideboard, one of the two largest sizes will hold the wall. The size guide lists every size in inches and centimetres, with the kind of wall each one suits.
How long does it take?
Your piece is printed in 1–3 business days, then spends 5–12 business days in transit, tracked all the way. Delivery is free anywhere in the US. We are unable to deliver to PO boxes.
What if it arrives damaged?
Send us a photograph and we will remake it and send it again. There is nothing to return.
Can I return it?
Yes, within 30 days of delivery. Our returns policy has the details.
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Printed to order
Graded against the original, then printed for you on cotton canvas or fine art paper in 1–3 business days.
The whole painting
Every mark is the artist’s own, and canvas edges are mirror-wrapped so the whole picture stays on the front.
Free US shipping
On every order, tracked, 5–12 business days in transit.
30-day returns
Returns and exchanges within 30 days of delivery.
