Displaying items by tag: albert bierstadt

In 1872, painter Albert Bierstadt finished "View From Donner Lake, California," which encompassed the mile-high waters of the Sierra Nevada with the sinewy wagon trails and the muscular, ramrod-straight tracks of the newly built transcontinental railroad.

But a funny thing happened in a different Bierstadt painting finished a year later. In "Donner Lake From the Summit," a celebrated 10-foot-wide oil-on-canvas commissioned by Collis P. Huntington, the wagon trail practically disappears. The railroad tracks are barely there too, at first glance possibly mistaken for a fallen tree. The emphasis is all warm sun, fluffy clouds and glorious terrain, untouched by man.

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute of Williamstown, Mass., will be unveiling a new loan at 1 p.m. this Friday, April 17: Albert Bierstadt’s “Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast,” recently arrived from the Seattle Art Museum.

The famed romantic painting is a temporary visitor in New England thanks to a friendly football wager back in January, when the two museums bet that their respective home team would the Super Bowl. Had the Seahawks beaten the Patriots, the Clark would have shipped off Winslow Homer’s “West Point, Prout’s Neck” for a visit to Seattle.

The Seattle Art Museum and New England’s Clark Art Institute are wagering temporary loans of major paintings based on the outcome of Super Bowl XLIX between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. The masterpieces that have been anted up showcase the beautiful landscapes of the Northwest and the Northeast respectively.

The Stakes: "The majestic Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast" from 1870 by Albert Bierstadt from SAM’s American art collection is wagered by Kimerly Rorschach, SAM’s Illsley Ball Nordstrom Director and CEO. Winslow Homer’s masterpiece, "West Point, Prout's Neck" (1900), one of the greatest works in the Clark’s noted Homer collection, is wagered by Michael Conforti, director of the Clark Art Institute. The winning museum will receive a three-month loan of the prized artwork. All shipping and expenses will be paid by the losing museum.

Yellowing varnish has been removed, torn canvas has been fixed and the city's prized Albert Bierstadt paintings are back home after a year, better than before.

"They absolutely glow," said Emily Johns, a local resident. "The amount of detail and the smoothness of the paint — it's amazing."

About 40 visitors were the first to view the three restored pieces during a special event at the New Bedford Free Public Library Friday evening. Many commented on the remarkable restoration work that has made the white areas more luminous and given the dark areas more depth.

Today’s auction of American Art at Sotheby’s New York achieved $45,869,625 (est. $33.2/49.7 million)* – among the highest totals for an American Art sale in the last five years.

- Today’s sell-through rate of 80.7% by lot marks the 5th consecutive American Art auction at Sotheby’s with a strong sell-through rate over 80%.

- Ten lots brought prices over $1 million, with more than half of all sold lots achieving prices above their high estimates – including eight of the auction’s top ten works.

- Ten works by Norman Rockwell totaled $20 million, meeting their combined pre-sale high estimate.

- Led by After the Prom, which sold for $9,1,250,000 – the 4th highest price at auction for the artist (est. $8/12 million). The work was last acquired at Sotheby’s New York in 1995 for $880,000.

The collection of American art at the Shelburne Museum tells the story of a new country finding its way through the 1700s and the 1880s. The 540 paintings help illustrate the history of a nation growing through westward expansion. The artwork, with its images of country stores and horse-drawn carriages, also begins to explain the Shelburne Museum itself, which was founded by Electra Havemeyer Webb in 1947.

"(The paintings) were kind of animating the museum for visitors," according to the museum's director, Tom Denenberg. "Without a doubt, the museum is already fixed in her head when she's buying these (paintings) in the late 1950s."

Winslow Homers in the shadow of a defunct Beech-Nut baby food plant. A Rembrandt, Picasso, Rubens and Renoir up the hill from a paper mill. The founder of the Hudson River School vying for attention amid baseball memorabilia and old farm machinery.

There are plenty of treasures to be found among the collections of lesser-known, off-the-beaten-path art museums dotting upstate New York. But they're well worth the trek for anyone looking for great art in unexpected places, whether it's the rolling, bucolic countryside typical of many areas or the industrial grittiness of riverside mill towns.

DeBruyne Fine Art of Naples, Florida, will host its thirteenth solo exhibition by internationally acclaimed artist Jenness Cortez. On view January 30 through March 31, 2014, 'Homage to the Creative Spirit 2014' presents the next chapter in an enriching visual conversation between the artist and the viewer. Among the many themes raised by her new realist work is Cortez’s heartfelt conviction that iconic images, when seen in familiar domestic settings, can inspire each of us to rediscover and revalue our own creative potential. Each intricate Cortez painting challenges the viewers’ intellectual curiosity and celebrates the sheer pleasure of beautiful painting. In her new work, Cortez plays author, architect, visual journalist, art historian, curator and pundit to help open our eyes to what we might otherwise have overlooked or taken for granted. In part, this year’s body of work pays homage Albrecht Dürer, George Stubbs, Albert Bierstadt, Pablo Picasso, George Inness, Winslow Homer, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Johannes Vermeer and Vincent Van Gogh.

The centerpiece of the Rockwell Museum of Western Art’s collection – Albert Bierstadt’s seminal painting Mount Whitney – was outfitted with a new frame late last month. The custom-made replica of an 1870s American frame was crafted by Manhattan’s Gill & Lagodich Fine Period Frames & Restoration. Experts spent nearly a year researching and fabricating the 8-foot x 12-foot gilded frame, which is decorated with traditional American oak leaf-and-berry and neoclassical elements.

Considered one of the nation’s most important American landscape paintings, officials at the Rockwell museum decided to revamp Mount Whitney after noticing a number of inconsistencies in its frame. Muddy molding and discolored gold leaf indicated that it was not the painting’s original frame and further research revealed that it was a reproduction of an 1850s French Empire-style frame. After consulting with a frame conservator, the Rockwell’s curatorial staff decided to commission a replica of an American period frame, which would properly preserve and present the monumental work of art.

Mount Whitney, a majestic depiction of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, epitomizes the sweeping landscapes of the American west that Bierstadt is best known for. Tracy Gill of Gill & Lagodich, said, “The objective is to recreate a frame of the highest quality that looks like it was made at the same time as the painting. Ultimately we want you to see the framed masterpiece as Bierstadt would have wanted. If we’ve created a frame that looks like the artist chose it, we’ve done our job right.”

Washington’s Tacoma Art Museum broke ground Thursday, September 5, 2013 on a $15.5 million expansion that will include new galleries. The 16,000-square-foot wing will house 280 works of Western art donated to the museum by German billionaires Erivan and Helga Haub. The collection, which ranks as one of the finest groupings of Western American art in the world, was accompanied by a $20 million gift from the Haubs.

The Tacoma Art Museum’s expansion, which is helmed by the Seattle-based architect Tom Kundig of Olson Kundig Architects, is slated to reach completion by fall 2014. The institution will boast the most significant public holding of Western artworks in the Pacific Northwest. The Haubs’ bequest includes landscapes by Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran, sculptures by Frederic Remington and works by modernist painters including Georgia O’Keeffe. The pieces range from the 1820s to the present and span various Western art genres.