German-born Albert Bierstadt gave definitive expression to America’s westward expansionism in the 1860s and 70s. His vast panoramas of the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains introduced Americans to a majestic wilderness, awesome but unthreatening, and well worth possessing.

The artist found his greatest subject in California's Yosemite Valley, which he first visited in the summer of 1863. So spectacular was the remote and secluded valley that early visitors readily imagined it the Promised Land. Bierstadt's many paintings of Yosemite, such as this view of Bridal Veil Falls, are indeed biblical in their grandeur, imbued with the sense that divinity dwells within the wilderness. Ironically, the popularity of Bierstadt's paintings attracted droves of tourists to Yosemite, compelling the artist to look elsewhere for untrammeled scenery.