Lake Lucerne
1858 · Oil on canvas · National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
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This print
About this work
- Artist
- Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902)
- Year
- 1858
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 182.9 × 304.8 cm
- Collection
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
- Movement
- Hudson River School
A panorama of Lake Lucerne and the Swiss Alps three metres wide, the lake stretching away between wooded slopes to snow peaks that close the distance. Bierstadt, born in Germany and raised in Massachusetts, had gone back to his birthplace to train and travelled through Switzerland on his way home, making dozens of sketches on the spot. He assembled them into this canvas in 1858 and showed it that spring at the National Academy of Design in New York, his first great picture and the model for the Rocky Mountain and Yosemite panoramas that followed; The Last of the Buffalo, thirty years later, matches its size. Bought by the Boston businessman Alvin Adams, it was sold after his death in 1882 and then lost for more than a century, until it turned up in a Rhode Island farmhouse in 1990. It is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A lake stretching between wooded slopes to snow peaks, a three-metre Alpine panorama, for a living room, dining room or long hallway at 36×24 in black. A sage, cream or pale blue wall; it suits a chalet-style room or home with timber.
- Style
- Hudson River School painting
- Era
- 19th century (1858)
- Orientation
- Landscape
- Mood
- calm
- Rooms
- living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. Prints at 18×12, 24×16, 36×24 in — 18×12 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 24×16 above a console or sideboard; 36×24 as the statement piece above a sofa or headboard.
Framing. The gallery ground is part of the print, so frame it without a mat — black suits the deep tones of this period; oak lightens it.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Lake Lucerne in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Lake Lucerne painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
