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According to the
Metropolitan Museum’s web site
(http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/view1.asp?dep=2&full=0&item=07%2E123),
“This painting is the major work that resulted from the artist's first trip
to the West. His intention to create panoramic views of the American frontier
was apparent by December 1858, just before he embarked on the trip. In early
1859 he accompanied a government survey expedition, headed by Frederick W.
Lander, to the Nebraska Territory. By summer, the party had reached the Wind
River Range of the Rocky Mountains in what is now Wyoming. Bierstadt dubbed
the central mountain in the picture Lander's Peak following the colonel's
death in the Civil War. This was one of a number of large works painted after
Bierstadt's return from these travels. It was completed in 1863, exhibited to
great acclaim, and purchased in 1865 for the then-astounding sum of $25,000
by James McHenry, an American living in London. Bierstadt later bought it
back and gave or sold it to his brother Edward.”
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