Bierstadt based this on sketches from his 1859 trip west with a government survey expedition. When the huge canvas toured the East, crowds lined up to see a landscape most Americans had never laid eyes on.
Shop / The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak
The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak
Albert Bierstadt · The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Albert Bierstadt, 1863. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access (public domain).