Lake Lucerne
Albert Bierstadt, 1858
The picture that made him. A Swiss lake, huge, careful, before the West ate the name. Paradise, still being proved. Lucerne believed it.
About this work
Lake Lucerne is an 1858 canvas by Albert Bierstadt, a ten-foot-wide view of the Swiss lake and the Alps beyond, now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Bierstadt, raised in New Bedford, Massachusetts, had returned in 1857 from several years of study in Düsseldorf. Its first public showing was at the National Academy of Design's annual exhibition in New York in the spring of 1858, a year before his first trip west. In December 1858 the New Bedford Daily Mercury reported that Bierstadt had sold it to a Boston buyer for $925. The buyer was Alvin Adams, founder of the Adams Express Company, who displayed his collection at his Watertown home. At the Adams estate sale in 1882 it went for $3,375 to Hezekiah Conant of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Then it disappeared from public view. Around 1890 it passed to William Leroy Sunderland of Exeter, Rhode Island, and it stayed with his family until the estate sale of his widow in October 1990, when it was bought on behalf of the National Gallery. The New York Times reported the find as a long-lost Bierstadt. The canvas measures 72 by 120 inches.
Sources: National Gallery of Art: Lake Lucerne · The New York Times: A Long-Lost Painting By Bierstadt Is Found (1990) · Wikipedia: Albert Bierstadt
Print facts
- Native resolution
- 7,104 × 4,233 px
- Sharp at 150 ppi up to
- 47 × 28 in
- Sizes
- Small (20 × 12 in) · $100 · 353 ppi
Medium (24 × 14 in) · $150 · 296 ppi
Large (36 × 21 in) · $300 · 197 ppi - Price includes
- Frame and US shipping · 14–21 days · 30-day returns
FAQ
Where can I buy a framed print of Lake Lucerne?
Here. Lake Lucerne is available as a framed print in three sizes: Small (20 × 12 in) for $100, Medium (24 × 14 in) for $150 and Large (36 × 21 in) for $300. Prices include the frame and US shipping; delivery takes 14–21 days, with 30-day returns.
What size works best for Lake Lucerne?
The file is 7,104 × 4,233 px, so every size is sharp: even Large (36 × 21 in) prints at 197 ppi. Choose Large (36 × 21 in) for a large wall; Small (20 × 12 in) suits a narrower space.
Is it legal to print Lake Lucerne?
Yes. Lake Lucerne is in the public domain: its copyright, if it ever had one, expired long ago. In the United States a faithful photograph of a public-domain painting does not create a new copyright (Bridgeman v. Corel, 1999), so the image can be printed and sold freely.
