Albert Bierstadt

Take a look at these two works.

On the left, Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite by Albert Bierstadt from the late 19th century.

And on the right, Valerie Hegarty's work from 2007 called Fallen Bierstadt.

In both name and image, Fallen Bierstadt is a direct reference to the original.

Works that are, as I'm sure Lewis would have known, throughout the U.S. Capitol.

In many ways, the U.S. Capitol's early art program is based entirely on around an Irvingian Columbus narrative from the Randolph Rogers Doors, which now faced the Supreme Court, to the Brumidi fresco, to Albert Bierstadt's Two Paintings for the House of Representatives.

Irving's project was to offer the U.S. an origin story that was brazenly, if not flagrantly, Christianist, that offered atrocities committed against indigenous people as fundamental to the U.S. origin story.

And Irving's project was to provide an argument and permission for U.S. imperialism, all while knowing the story he was constructing was ahistorical and mythological.

... what do they take, um, what's the piece or three that they take a picture of at your museum?

Uh, I think probably our great Bierstadt painting-

Mm

...