Merced River, Yosemite Valley

Albert Bierstadt

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

On May 12, 1863, in the company of the journalist and explorer Fitz Hugh Ludlow, Bierstadt departed on his second trip to the West. The two men camped in California’s Yosemite Valley in August, probably inspired by the stereoscopic photographs of Carleton E. Watkins, who had recorded the valley’s magnificent scenery under various atmospheric conditions in 1861. From the many studies Bierstadt made during the trip, he painted several large works back in his New York studio. In this canvas, monumental, jagged peaks dwarf a group of foreground figures, likely depicting members of Yosemite’s Indigenous population, who inhabited the valley for millennia prior to Bierstadt’s arrival.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art