Albert Bierstadt and the speculative terrain of American landscape painting, 1866-1877
| Author(s) | Wigmore, Spencer | |
| Date Accessioned | 2021-06-17T12:06:47Z | |
| Date Available | 2021-06-17T12:06:47Z | |
| Publication Date | 2020 | |
| SWORD Update | 2021-05-20T19:09:16Z | |
| Abstract | Beginning in the mid-1860s, the German-American landscape painter Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902) used the fortune earned from his painting practice to make speculative investments in railroads, mines, and real estate across the American West, often at or near the sites that he depicted in his landscapes. As his involvement in speculation deepened, Bierstadt worked to align himself with an emergent culture of elite transatlantic finance. Reconstructing Bierstadt’s ambitions as a speculator, this dissertation investigates the relationship between the artist’s land dealings and his landscape paintings. In doing so, it argues that Bierstadt’s pictures invite audiences to imagine western space as if they were speculators. In advancing this claim, this dissertation reassesses Bierstadt’s reputation as an American Western artist, revealing his conviction that the cultural, economic, and social value of western land stemmed from its exchangeability as a financial asset. ☐ Progressing chronologically, each chapter analyzes a major midcareer landscape by Bierstadt, contending that formal peculiarities in these works evince the artist’s creative engagement with speculation. Chapter Two explores how inscrutable topography in A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mount Rosalie (1866) dramatizes the challenges that mining speculators faced when assessing the value of underground spaces. Chapter Three reckons with the long viewing distances that Bierstadt’s paintings often demand, proposing that in Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California (1868), long-distance viewing metaphorizes the importance of connecting remote western spaces to Northeastern and European financiers. Chapter Four demonstrates how Mount Corcoran (ca. 1876-77) harnesses conventions from cartography to evoke the experience of receiving an insider tip about promising land—an interpretation informed by new archival research into Bierstadt’s attempts to profit from silver mines in the Inyo Mountains of Eastern California. Taken together, these examples offer a more dynamic understanding of the relationship between Bierstadt’s landscape paintings, the western environment, and the transatlantic economic forces that informed American imperial expansion during the second half of the nineteenth century. | en_US |
| Advisor | Bellion, Wendy A. | |
| Degree | Ph.D. | |
| Department | University of Delaware, Department of Art History | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.58088/pcnj-4661 | |
| Unique Identifier | 1256808473 | |
| URL | https://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/29063 | |
| Language | en | |
| Publisher | University of Delaware | en_US |
| URI | https://login.udel.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/albert-bierstadt-speculative-terrain-american/docview/2533306598/se-2?accountid=10457 | |
| Keywords | American history | en_US |
| Keywords | American West | en_US |
| Keywords | Cultural identity | en_US |
| Keywords | Ecocriticism | en_US |
| Keywords | Land speculation | en_US |
| Title | Albert Bierstadt and the speculative terrain of American landscape painting, 1866-1877 | en_US |
| Type | Thesis | en_US |