Seal Rock
Artist
Albert Bierstadt
(German-American, 1830 - 1902)
Datec. 1872-87
MediumOil on canvas on wood paneled stretcher
Dimensions30 x 44 1/4 in. (41 1/4 x 56 1/2 x 4 3/4 in. framed)
ClassificationsOil Painting
Credit LineA. W. Stanley Fund
Terms
Object number1962.14
DescriptionIn 1871 Bierstadt returned to California on a third western trip, this time traveling by railroad. He established a studio in San Francisco and spent a great deal of time exploring and sketching in Yosemite, the Sierra Nevada, and along the Pacific Coast. One of his destinations was the Farallons, a group of desolate rocky islands located in the Pacific Ocean twenty-six miles west of San Francisco. Hardly famous for their natural scenery, the fog-covered islands were primarily regarded as a danger to ships bound for the Golden Gate. The Farallons were, however, well known to several commercial outfits that went there each spring to gather murres' eggs for sale in San Francisco markets. Bierstadt may have been attracted to the islands by the descriptions of their fantastic scenery that appeared in several early California guidebooks. In 1856 Hutchings' California Magazine reported: "Looking at the wonders on every side, we were astonished that we had heard so little about them; and, that a group of islands like these, should lie within a few hours sail of San Francisco, yet not be the resort of nearly every seeker of pleasure, and every lover of the wonderful. It is like one vast menagerie."(1) A photographer himself, Bierstadt also may have seen the many stereographic views of the islands taken by Carleton Watkins and Eadweard Muybridge beginning about 1868.(2) Bierstadt's trip to the Farallons coincided with breeding season. He arrived on South Farallon on April 29 and spent several days executing oil sketches of the strange rock formations, rugged terrain, and teeming sea-lion and bird populations.(3) The studies were executed on small portable pieces of paper or cardboard, about a dozen of which are still extant. On May 2, 1872, the San Francisco Bulletin announced Bierstadt's return: "He has procured sketches for a marine painting of the Isles, and will doubtless give us a faithful likeness."(4) As predicted, the sketches provided the artist material for at least six major paintings, which he executed over the next fifteen years.(5) All present roughly the same subject: a strange rock formation extending into a sea, crawling with sea lions and buffeted by a huge wave.(6)
In contrast to the fresh, spontaneous quality of the plein-air sketches, the larger paintings exhibit the highly polished surfaces and elaborate detailing associated with Bierstadt's work. These dramatic seascapes present the more dangerous aspects of the islands--the jagged rocks, the roiling sea, and the crashing waves. Bierstadt's water is marvelously painted, with its translucent green crest, frothy white foam, and misty spray. Yet in all these pictures, as in the many written descriptions of the Farallons, the disporting sea lions steal the show, their playfulness belying the terror of the inhospitable environment. The bobbing sea lion grasping the pink fish in its mouth is almost a signature vignette, for it appears in every picture of the series.
In painting the sea lions of the Farallons, Bierstadt may have been attempting to capitalize on increased interest in California tourism (some of which he helped stimulate with his pictures of Yosemite). Yet Bierstadt's Farralon pictures, executed when his popularity was beginning to wane and when he rarely exhibited, were not nearly as successful as his larger mountain landscapes. One Farallons painting was purchased and proudly exhibited in the private gallery of New York department store magnate A. T. Stewart; the other versions may have been commissioned by California collectors.(7)
MAS
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Henry T. Tuckerman, "Book of the Artists: American Artist Life" (New York: G. P. Putnam and Son, 1867), pp. 387-97; Gordon Hendricks, "Albert Bierstadt: Painter of the American West" (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1974); Nancy K. Anderson and Linda S. Ferber, "Albert Bierstadt: Art and Enterprise", exhib. cat. (Brooklyn: Brooklyn Museum, 1990).
Notes:
1 . "The Farallone Islands," Hutchings' California Magazine 1 (August 1856): 52.
2. Watkins visited the islands about 1868 or 1869, producing mammoth-size prints of the seals and rocks for inclusion in his ongoing series "Pacific Coast Views" and "Farallone Islands"; Muybridge visited the islands in 1871 (see Peter E. Palmquist, "Carleton E. Watkins: Photographer of the American West" [Fort Worth: Amon Carter Museum, 1983], pp. 37-38; Gordon Hendricks, "Eadweard Muybridge: The Father of the Motion Picture" [New York: Grossman Publishers, 1975], pp. 31, 40-41; and William C. Darrah, "The World of Stereographs" [Gettysburg: William C. Darrah, 1977], pp. 84-85). Bierstadt knew Muybridge and accompanied him on a trip to the Sierra Nevada in 1872.
3. Bierstadt's presence on the Farallons is documented in the Records of the Lighthouse Service, Lighthouse Station Logs, 1897-1941, Farallon Island, South, April 29, 1872-May 1, 1872, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
4. "Bulletin" (San Francisco), May 2, 1872, quoted in Anderson and Ferber, Albert Bierstadt, p. 238.
5. Most of these pictures are dated about 1872, although Bierstadt exhibited Farallon subjects as late as 1888. "Seal Rocks, Farallon Islands" (oil on canvas, 26 x 36 in., Sotheby's, sale December 6, 1984, lot 80) is the most similar to the New Britain picture, having the same rock formation. The others are "Farallon Island" (1887, oil on canvas, 35 x 53 in., Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pa.); "Seals on the Rocks" (oil on canvas, 30 x 44 in., private collection); "Seal Rocks, San Francisco" (oil on canvas, 37 x 58 in., private collection); and "Seal Rock" (oil on canvas, 37 x 58 in., Warner Collection of Gulf States Paper Company, Tuscaloosa, Ala.).
6. In spite of Bierstadt's often misleading titles, the animals are Stellar Sea Lions, not seals, and the geologic subject is probably not Seal Rock, but a formation known as Sea Lion Islet. Located on the extreme northern end of the islands, Sea Lion Islet receives the direct prevailing ocean swells from the northwest. I am grateful to David G. Ainley, Point Reyes Bird Observatory, for his information on the geology and fauna of the Farallons.
7. Stewart sold his picture in 1887, about fifteen years after he purchased it.
On View
On view
