The Emerald Pool
Artist
Albert Bierstadt
(American, 1830-1902)
CultureAmerican
Date1870
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions76 1/2 x 119 in. (194.3 x 302.3 cm)
Overall, Frame: 85 3/4 × 127 7/8 × 5 in. (217.8 × 324.8 × 12.7 cm)
Overall, Frame: 85 3/4 × 127 7/8 × 5 in. (217.8 × 324.8 × 12.7 cm)
InscribedSigned and dated lower right center: ABierstadt 1870
Credit LineBequest of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number89.59
Collections
On View
Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 212
Label TextAlbert Bierstadt American, 1830–1902 The Emerald Pool, 1870 Oil on canvas Chrysler understood how appealing largescale, exceptionally fine, and grand works of art would be in a public art museum. The artist’s vision was not dissimilar. When Albert Bierstadt unveiled one of his gigantic paintings, it was a spectacular event. City audiences flocked to see paintings like The Emerald Pool, one of his largest canvases, which shows off New Hampshire’s Mount Washington. Curtains and elaborate frames added theatrical grandeur to his exhibitions, and visitors brought opera glasses to study minute details. Although Bierstadt crisscrossed America to sketch its natural wonders from life, he often exaggerated scale in his paintings, indulging viewers’ taste for a thrilling vision of nature. Bequest of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 89.59 ProvenanceThe artist; [Leland Stanford, San Francisco?]; A. T. Stewart, New York, until 1887; Charles M. Atkins, New York; Roy Carruthers, New York and Detroit; [Allien & Co.?; private collection, San Francisco?]; Hirschl & Adler Gallery, New York, by 1968; Huntington Hartford, New York, 1971; [private collection, Taylor, Texas?]; M. Knoedler Co., New York; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.; Bequest of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to The Chrysler Museum, 1989. Exhibition HistoryTenth Street Studio Building, New York, N.Y., May 1870. Child's Gallery, Boston, Mass., August - November 9, 1870. [Possibly] Fourth Winter Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, N.Y., November, 1870. Chicago Academy of Design, 1871. [Possibly] National Academy of Design, New York, N.Y., Summer, 1871. Snow and Roos Art Gallery, San Francisco, Calif., July - August, 1871. San Francisco Art Association, Calif., September, 1871. International Exposition, Vienna, Austria, 1873. (Exh. cat. no. 619, won medal.) A. T. Stewart Collection sale, New York, N.Y., 1887. "Twenty-five American Masterpieces," Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, N.Y., April 23 - May 11, 1968. (Exhib. cat. no. 16) "Albert Bierstadt," M. Knoedler & Co., New York, N.Y., 1972. (Exhib. cat. no. 10) "Important 19th and 20th Century American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture," Parke Bernet Galleries, New York, N.Y., Public Auction, April 7- 8, 1971. "Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," The Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. "The World of Franklin and Jefferson," Museo Nacional Anthropologia de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico, April 16 - June 15, 1977. "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008. "Mount Washington: The Crown of New England," Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH, October 1, 2016 - January 16, 2017. Published References_San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin_, July 21 and 23, 1871. _Catalogue of the A.T. Stewart Collection of Paintings, Sculptures and Other Works of Art_, March 23-25, 1887, Chickering Hall, New York, N.Y., 51, 72, 81, no. 138. "...Move Famous Painting, Art Loses a Place," _New York Sun_ (December 14, 1926). _New York Times_, December 8, 1926, untitled clipping. Gordon Hendricks, "The First Three Western Journeys of Albert Bierstadt," _Art Bulletin_ 46 (September 1964): 348. Introduction by Stuart P. Feld, _Twenty-Five American Masterpieces_, exh. cat., Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, N.Y., 1968, no. 16. _Important 19th and 20th Century American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture_, auction catalog, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, N.Y., April 7-8, 1971. Gordon Hendricks, _A Bierstadt: An Essay and Catalogue to Accompany a Retrospective Exhibition of the work of Albert Bierstadt_, exh. cat., Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Tex., 1972. Gordon Hendricks, _Albert Bierstadt, 1830-1902_, M. Knoedler Gallery, New York, N.Y., 1972, 12, no. 10. Gordon Hendricks, _Albert Bierstadt: Painter of the American West_ (New York: H. N. Abrams in association with the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, 1974), 196, 198, 205. William C. Lipke and Philip N. Grime, "Albert Bierstadt in New Hampshire," _Currier Gallery of Art Bulletin_ no. 2 (1973): 20-37. Dennis R. Anderson, "New Acquisitions on View in Lobby," _The Chrysler Museum Bulletin_ 3, no. 6 (June 1974). Dennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975, 96, 98. Catherine H. Campbell, "Albert Bierstadt and the White Mountains," _Archives of American Art Journal_ 21, no. 3 (1981): 14-22. Linda Ferber, _The New Path: Ruskin and the American Pre-Raphaelites_, exh. cat., The Brooklyn Museum, New York, N.Y., 1985, 234-235. James L. Yarnall and William H. Gerdts, _Index to American Art Exhibition Catalogues_ (Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1986), 295, 296. "Museum Benefits From Chrysler Trust," _The Chrysler Museum Bulletin_ 18, no. 11 (December 1988): 1-2. "Art Added To Collection," _The Chrysler Museum Bulletin_ 19, no. 10 (October 1989). "La Chronique des Arts: Principales Acquisitions des Musées en 1989," _Gazette des Beaux-Arts: Supplementary_ no. 1454 (March 1990), 57, no. 283. Alan Axelrod, _Art of the Golden West_ (New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990), 398. "Mountain Brook," _Counterpoint: Two Centuries of American Masters_, exh. cat., Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, N.Y., no. 5. Nancy K. Anderson, Linda S. Ferber, and Helena E. Wright, _Albert Bierstadt: Art & Enterprise_, exh. cat., The Brooklyn Museum, New York, N.Y., 1990, 58-59, 65 n27, 175, 188, 189, 223, 224, 227, 252, 279, 288 n34, fig. 33. Jefferson C. Harrison, _The Chrysler Museum Handbook of the European and American Collections: Selected Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings_ (Norfolk: The Chrysler Museum, 1991), 127-127, no. 101. Tom Robotham, _Albert Bierstadt_ (New York: Crescent Books, 1993), 75-77. Robert L. McGrath, _Gods in Granite: The Art of the White Mountains of New Hampshire_ (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2001), 169-170, fig. 123. Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 90-91, no. 53. Nancy Siegel, "I never has so difficult a picture to paint: Albert Bierstadt's White Mountain Scenery and The Emerald Pool," _19th Century Art World Wide: A journal nineteenth-century visual culture_. Volume 4, issue 3. 11/2005: http://19thc-artworldwide.org/autumn_05/articles/sieg.html. Jeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 63, fig. 66. Annette Blaugrund, _Albert Bierstadt in New York and New England_ (Catskill, New York: Thomas Cole National Historic Site, 2013), 16. P. Andrew Spahr, _Mount Washington: The Crown of New England_, (Manchester, New Hampshire: Currier Museum of Art, 2016), 50, fig.no.39.
S.E. Hughy