Coastal light and American expansion · 1830 -1902

From San Francisco to Monterey, from Alaska to the Bahamas, Albert Bierstadt transforms the bay into a theater of light where ship, cliff, mist and horizon measure the immensity of the territory.

Albert Bierstadt was born in Solingen in 1830 and grew up in New Bedford, a large whaling port in Massachusetts. Formed in Düsseldorf in the 1850s, he brought back to the United States a precise technique, a theatrical composition and a taste for atmospheric light. Famous especially for his panoramas of the Rockies and Yosemite, he also painted numerous coasts, bays and ports during his travels. Famous especially for his panoramas of the Rockies and Yosemite, he also painted numerous coasts, bays and ports during his travels. The maritime view allows him to adapt his language of the sublime to a more open surface: water reflects the sky, mist dissolves distances and a small boat gives scale. San Francisco Bay appears in turn as a natural space, commercial route and threshold of the city modern. Alcatraz, sailboats and distant reliefs structure a landscape where human presence remains tiny. Port Richmond places greater emphasis on inhabited coastline and trade. In Monterey, rocks, coastal vegetation and Pacific light produce a more intimate scene. Late voyages further expand the geography. Bierstadt visited Alaska in 1889; the wreck of the Ancon in Loring Bay confronts the spectacle of northern nature with the fragility of the ship. In the Bahamas, warm water, sky and shore move the palette to other intensities. These images are not simple topographical surveys. In the Bahamas, warm water, sky and shore move the palette to other intensities. These images are not simple topographical surveys. In the Bahamas, warm water, sky and shore move the palette to other intensities. These images are not simple topographical surveys. In the Bahamas, warm water, sky and shore move the palette to other intensities. These images are not simple topographical surveys. In the Bahamas, the sky and shore move the palette to other intensities. dramatic in order to create an amplified experience of the place. They also belong to the history of American expansion, tourism and the representation of territories presented as vast, available or spectacular. Looking at them today therefore requires admiring the light while placing this vision in its historical context. The selection "Bays and maritime views of Albert Bierstadt" notably compares Wreck of the Ancon in Loring Bay, Alaska - Albert Bierstadt and Alcatraz, San Francisco Bay - Albert Bierstadt. Its reading favors figures.

Bierstadt measures the bay by light: a sailboat, a wreck or an island are enough to make the horizon immense and historically charged.