Lake Lucerne

The gleam of the Swiss Alps across Lake Lucerne is the view that first made Albert Bierstadt’s name, the grand panorama with which he announced himself to America. A German-born painter who trained in Düsseldorf before turning to the mountainscapes of the American West, Bierstadt built the picture from the dozens of sketches he made beside the lake and unveiled it in 1858 at his New York debut at the National Academy of Design. It established the polished, imposing landscape manner that would make him the Hudson River school’s most celebrated member.