Mount Starr King, Yosemite1866 · Study 1922.684

Context from the museum

During the summer of 1863, Bierstadt visited Yosemite Valley in California and made numerous sketches. Back in his New York studio, he used them to produce many majestic paintings, including this view of the distant granite peak Mount Starr King. Such scenes thrilled East Coast audiences and helped encourage early movements to safeguard natural wonders. In 1864, President Lincoln signed a bill preserving Yosemite as public property; it became a national park in 1890. Bierstadt included two Native Americans with a packhorse in his composition, and their presence references the fact that Indigenous peoples had inhabited or seasonally visited the region for millennia. Over time, various government and military agencies dispossessed them of these ancestral lands. Although no longer residents in the national park, descendants of the seven Indigenous nations with ties to Yosemite persevered to live in neighboring areas.

Museum description reproduced from its CC0 open-access record. Read the original catalog entry.

A detail to notice

Highly successful, Bierstadt built a mansion and named it Malkasten, a German word meaning “paintbox.”

Observation supplied by the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Read the dimensions before the image

The selected unframed measurement for Mount Starr King, Yosemite is 142.3 cm wide and 97 cm high, equivalent to approximately 56.0 × 38.2 inches. Dividing width by height gives a format ratio of 1.47:1. The rectangular bounding area is 1.38 square meters; it describes the measured footprint, not the amount of paint or the monetary value.

On an illustrative 300 cm wall, the recorded width occupies 47.4% of the span before adding a frame. A centered placement leaves approximately 78.8 cm on each side before adding a frame. These are calculations by Physical Art For Crypto using museum measurements. They are not the museum’s display recommendations.

Questions to bring to your own collection

With Mount Starr King, Yosemite in view, identify one feature you can point to, then distinguish what the museum records from your personal response. Keep its medium, oil on canvas on panel-back stretcher, in your notes when comparing contemporary works.

• Which part of this horizontal composition catches your eye first?
• Would a 142.3 cm width still suit the space after allowing for furniture and a frame?
• What surface detail would you need to see in person or in a close photograph?