American Mountain Scenery

Currier & Ives produced dozens of lithographs illustrating the beauty of the American wilderness. In this unnamed mountain scene, a stag and doe stand proudly near a large waterfall in a forest. The print is similar to paintings produced by the noted artist Albert Bierstadt during the mid-19th century. Bierstadt first traveled to the Rocky Mountains in 1859 and became identified as the painter of the American West. His second trip to the West, in 1863, was chronicled in the New York press. Bierstadt's paintings often featured light-filled vast landscapes of wilderness, untouched by civilization. Currier & Ives may have borrowed the standing alert deer, seemingly aware of the potential threat of man, from Bierstadt, who used the motif often in his paintings.

Date: 1868

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