Albert Bierstadt 1830-1902

Vose Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts
Private Collection, New York
Kennedy Galleries, New York , 1985
Mr. George Strichman, 1985 (acquired from the above)
Godel & Co. Fine Art, New York, 1994
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1996

Washington, D.C., National Collection of the Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, American Landscape: A Changing Frontier, April-June 1966
Washington, D.C., The Corcoran Gallery of Art; Buffalo, New York, Albright-Knox Art Gallery; New York, The New-York Historical Society, Niagara: Two Centuries of Changing Attitudes, 1697-1901, September 1985-April 1986, no. 28, pp. 69-70, fig. 63

Kennedy Galleries Presents Fifteen Superb and Rare American Masterpieces, New York, 1989, no. 5, illustrated in color

Good condition, lined; under UV: one small spot of retouching at upper center edge. A one inch line of inpainting at bottom left edge and a one inch line of inpainting along the left edge with a few other small dots of retouching.
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Throughout his career Albert Bierstadt traveled widely and produced many paintings of America's iconic locales. In the summer of 1869 shortly after returning to New York following a two year long European tour, Bierstadt and his wife Rosalie set off for Niagara Falls. Taking Rosalie's sister Esther with them, they planned to visit Bierstadt's brother Charles, a well-known photographer, and his sister Helen, both of whom resided near the Falls.

Bierstadt retuned to the area over the years and painted the Falls at least a dozen times. In Home of the Rainbow, Bierstadt captures the chromatic phenomenon of a double rainbow arching down into the canyon of the vast, cascading water. The viewer is situated in the foreground of the composition at the edge of the Falls, high above the seemingly endless rush of water. The awe Bierstadt must have felt is captured in this idealized vision of two naturally occurring wonders, the spectacular rainbows and the grandeur of Niagara Falls itself.