Valley of the Yosemite
Albert Bierstadt, 1868
Yosemite like a church that forgot it needed walls. The West, sold to people who had never seen it. The river is an aisle. The cliffs are the choir.
About this work
Valley of the Yosemite is an 1864 oil on paperboard by Albert Bierstadt, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Bierstadt, born in Solingen, Germany, in 1830 and raised in New Bedford, Massachusetts, travelled west in the summer of 1863 with the writer Fitz Hugh Ludlow and spent several weeks making open-air studies in Yosemite Valley. He painted this view from those studies in his New York studio. It looks down the valley at sunset, with a golden haze between sheer granite walls, a river winding through the meadows and a few deer in the foreground. After seeing Yosemite, Bierstadt wrote to his friend John Hay that he had found the Garden of Eden, and he shows it untouched by people. In April 1864 the painting was shown at the Metropolitan Fair in New York, held for the United States Sanitary Commission, where it sold for $1,600, the highest price paid for any painting in that sale. James Lenox bought it; it later passed to the New York Public Library, which sold it in 1943, and Martha Karolik gave it to the Boston museum in 1947. The same year, 1864, President Lincoln signed the act that protected Yosemite.
Sources: Wikipedia: Valley of the Yosemite · Wikipedia: Albert Bierstadt
Print facts
- Native resolution
- 5,547 × 4,296 px
- Sharp at 150 ppi up to
- 36 × 28 in
- Sizes
- Small (20 × 15 in) · $100 · 277 ppi
Medium (24 × 19 in) · $150 · 226 ppi
Large (36 × 28 in) · $300 · 153 ppi - Price includes
- Frame and US shipping · 14–21 days · 30-day returns
FAQ
Where can I buy a framed print of Valley of the Yosemite?
Here. Valley of the Yosemite is available as a framed print in three sizes: Small (20 × 15 in) for $100, Medium (24 × 19 in) for $150 and Large (36 × 28 in) for $300. Prices include the frame and US shipping; delivery takes 14–21 days, with 30-day returns.
What size works best for Valley of the Yosemite?
The file is 5,547 × 4,296 px, so every size is sharp: even Large (36 × 28 in) prints at 153 ppi. Choose Large (36 × 28 in) for a large wall; Small (20 × 15 in) suits a narrower space.
Is it legal to print Valley of the Yosemite?
Yes. Valley of the Yosemite 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.
