Texas’ Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, recently acquired an early landscape by Hudson River School master Albert Bierstadt, whose scenes of the American landscape are treasured by collectors and museums around the world. The work acquired, A Rustic Mill, was a gift to the institution from longtime trustee Frank Hevrdejs and his wife, Michelle.
Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), A Rustic Mill, 1855, oil on canvas, 43¼ x 58¼”. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Gift of Michelle and Frank J. Hevrdejs.
Though mostly associated with his scenes of the sublime in nature of the American landscape, Bierstadt established his reputation early on with paintings such as A Rustic Mill, painted while he was in Dusseldorf, Germany. “A Rustic Mill exemplifies Bierstadt’s style in its infancy, and would allow our audiences to trace the arc of his career from this starting point through the height of his powers,” says Kaylin Weber, associate curator of American paintings and sculpture. “The seeds of the sublime, the hallmark of Bierstadt’s greatest landscapes of the American West, were planted in this painting.”
This is one of several major works the MFAH has recently acquired. Other pieces include Charles M. Russell’s Approach of the White Men, Julian Onderdonk’s Snow in the Rock Quarry and William Merritt Chase’s Portrait of Mrs. H. The works are now on view at the museum in Houston. —
Calling all Western Art museums! Have a recently acquired painting or sculpture? Email the details to editor@westernartcollector.com.
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