Mountain Landscape with Cattle

Maker William Keith (American, 1839 - 1911)

Collections

American Paintings Selections

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Date1879

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensions30 x 50 in. (76.2 x 127 cm.) frame: 44 1/4 × 64 × 4 in. (112.4 × 162.6 × 10.2 cm.)

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. H. W. Dougherty

Status

On view

Label TextMountain Landscape with Cattle is one of Keith's celebrated bucolic California landscapes, an intimate scene featuring meadows, groves of trees, and a secluded stream. The mountain in the distance is probably Mount Tamalpais, which overlooks both the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay just north of the Golden Gate. The mountain, long revered by Indigenous peoples, was referred to by the Coast Miwok as támal pájis, or "west hill." Here, traces of settler culture are visible in the long, meandering path worn by grazing cattle, yet a tenuous balance between human activity and pristine natural spaces remains, a prominent theme in Keith's western landscapes.

Keith settled in San Francisco in 1859 and was working as an artist by 1868. In 1869, he traveled through Europe, studying in Düsseldorf, Germany. The realistic style of this painting and its view from a valley into the mountains are typical of artists, including Albert Bierstadt, who trained in Düsseldorf.

Object number85.49