The Marina Piccola, Capri by Albert Bierstadt Poster

Albert Bierstadt’s The Marina Piccola, Capri is a large oil on canvas painting completed in 1859, based on preparatory sketches made during his month-long stay on the island of Capri in southern Italy. The work depicts the smaller of Capri’s two bays, Marina Piccola, with a detailed foreground featuring genre scenes of local life and a distant view of the iconic Faraglioni sea stacks shrouded in mist. The composition balances multiple focal points unified by atmospheric light and a strong sense of depth, with a lone sailboat on the horizon serving as the central focus. This painting reflects Bierstadt’s early mastery of romantic realism and luminism, influenced by his training in the Düsseldorf School and his travels in Europe. In 1863, Bierstadt gifted this painting to The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy (now the Albright-Knox Art Gallery), making it the first artwork donated by an artist to the museum’s collection. His inscription expressed a heartfelt wish for the academy’s success and acknowledged the debt every artist owes to their profession.