Buffalo on Laramie Plains, Nebraska

Artist Albert Bierstadt (American, 1830 - 1902)

Datec. 1859

Mediumoil on paperboard

Dimensions5 13/16 x 8 3/4 inches (14.8 x 22.2 cm)
Frame: 14 3/4 × 34 × 3/4 inches (37.5 × 86.4 × 1.9 cm)

Credit LineBequest of H.J. Lutcher Stark, 1965

Object number31.14.28

ClassificationsPaintings

DescriptionHorizontal oil painting depicting an open grassy prairie. A single tree stands at the center of the work, with some animals grazing in the shade of the tree. Low mountains rise in the distance beneath a mostly clear sky. A cluster of trees stands along the left edge in front of the mountains.

Label TextBierstadt painted these sketches in 1859 on the Great Plains near the Wind River Mountains. He accompanied the expedition of Colonel Frederick Lander. Lander’s task was to survey and build a wagon road. The Lander Trail made a way for settlers to travel to new homes in California. In these sketches, the only inhabitants are the bison. In other canvases from this trip, Bierstadt portrayed the Sioux and Shoshone people who lived near the wagon road site.

ProvenancePurchased June 3, 1958 through (C. Bland Jamison, Santa Fe, New Mexico) by H.J. Lutcher Stark [1887-1965]; bequeathed September 2, 1965 to the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation; accessioned to the Stark Museum of Art

On View

Not on view