In the 1860s, many Americans preferred to imagine an empty West, ready for waves of new settlers.
In Bierstadt’s early large-scale paintings, he often portrayed the American West as a beautiful place, home to bustling communities of Native Americans.
Critics began to rebuke Bierstadt for including Indigenous peoples in his depictions of the region. In response, Bierstadt largely stopped portraying Native Americans in his western landscapes. Instead, he populated his paintings of wide open spaces with bison, invoking the animal as a symbol of a changing region.
