1863 -1880 · Valley, domes and making an icon

Bierstadt frames Yosemite through rocky gates, domes, falls and bird's-eye views: the valley becomes a sublime scene that accompanies tourism, conservation and dispossession.

Albert Bierstadt visited Yosemite in 1863, shortly before the Yosemite Grant of 1864 placed the Mariposa Valley and Grove under public protection. He produced numerous studies and then composed views which greatly contributed to the fame of the site. The Yosemite Gates use the cliffs as a natural setting opening onto a luminous valley. North Dome, Cathedral Rocks and Glacier Point give each formation a monumental identity. The falls add a brilliant vertical within the granite, while the plunging views organize the depth from a high point. The falls add a brilliant vertical within the granite, while the plunging views organize the depth from a high point. The falls add a brilliant vertical within the granite, while the plunging views organize the depth from a high point. Campfires or indigenous encampments recall a human presence, but the dominant image often presents Yosemite as an empty nature available for contemplation. This vision masks the expulsion and resistance of the Ahwahneechee and other communities linked to the territory. Bierstadt contributes to an important conservation history, inseparable from tourism and colonization. The collection allows us to compare the visual devices that transformed a lived valley into a national icon. The "Yosemite by Albert Bierstadt" selection notably compares a bird's eye view of the Yosemite Valley, California and North Dome, Yosemite Valley. His reading favors movement.

The doors of Yosemite seem to open onto an uneventful nature; the sublime setting makes it necessary to recall the human stories that it leaves off-camera.