Study for "The Last of the Buffalo"

Albert Bierstadt painted The Last of the Buffalo as a monumental elegy for the American bison and, by extension, the entire world of the Plains. The finished large canvas dates to 1888; this study at the de Young Museum represents the preparatory work through which Bierstadt resolved compositional and coloristic questions. Bierstadt was deeply affected by the near-extinction of the bison during the 1880s, which coincided with the final violent suppression of Plains Indian cultures. The subject proved controversial: some critics saw it as sentimental, while others recognized it as a genuine indictment of industrialized slaughter.

The study's handling is freer and more gestural than the finished canvas, with the herd conveyed through bold masses of brown and ochre rather than meticulous individual rendering. The light is dramatic and theatrical in characteristic Bierstadt fashion, with the setting sun casting long horizontal shadows across the plain.