Lake Lucerne — Albert Bierstadt, 1858

Before his celebrated paintings of the American West, Bierstadt painted the mountains of Europe. Lake Lucerne draws on his European travels, bringing together the Swiss lake, cultivated fields, villages, and Alpine peaks. First exhibited in 1858, it established an approach to expansive landscape that he would later carry into his American work.

The original oil painting is held by the National Gallery of Art, Washington.