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Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point Trail
Artist / Origin: Albert Bierstadt (American, born Germany, 1830–1902)
Region: North America
Date: 1834
Period: 1800 CE – 1900 CE
Material: Oil on canvas
Medium: Painting
Dimensions: H: 54 in. (137.2 cm.), W: 84 ¾ in. (215.3 cm).
Location: Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
Credit: Courtesy of Yale University Art Gallery, Gift of Mrs. Vincenzo Ardenghi
Bleaching Ground in the Countryside Near Haarlem
Artist / Origin: Jacob Isaacksz. van Ruisdael (Dutch, 1628/9–82)
Region: Europe
Date: ca. 1670
Period: 1400 CE – 1800 CE
Material: Oil on canvas
Medium: Painting
Dimensions: H: 24 5/8 in. (62.5 cm.), W: 21 ¾ in. (55.2 cm.)
Location: Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland
Credit: Courtesy of Giraudon/Bridgeman Art Library
The way one sees and represents the natural world is filtered through a series of changeable lenses—social and political, as well as cultural. It follows that all landscapes are constructs which embody and express, sustain and serve human values, interests, and aspirations. As the examples of Bierstadt’s Yosemite Valleyand Ruisdael’s Bleaching Ground demonstrate, art has often functioned to define nationhood and national identity.