American Museum of Western Art Denver

Betsy Magness Galleries, Level 7, North Building

The Petrie Institute of Western American Art is the national leader in scholarly research and programming in the field of art of the American West. The Petrie Institute is organized to enrich life in the Rocky Mountain region through the study, collection, preservation, and exhibition of art created about the American West, its people, its history, and its landscape.

Our encyclopedic western American art collection is anchored by three extraordinary masterworks—Frederic Remington's bronze The Cheyenne, Charles M. Russell's In the Enemy's Country and Charles Deas's Long Jakes, “the Rocky Mountain Man.”

The Roath Collection

In 2013 the museum announced a major gift of western American art from Henry Roath. The generous donation effectively doubled the importance of the existing western collections and is one of the most important gifts in the history of the Denver Art Museum.

Along with the collection donation, Mr. Roath made a financial gift to help establish an acquisitions fund to transform the future of the department and collection. The Roath Collection comprises over 50 works by masters of the American West including Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, Frederic Remington, and Ernest L. Blumenschein with artworks ranging in date from 1877 to 1972.

Other Notable Highlights

• William Jacob Hays, Herd of Buffalo
• Thomas Moran’s watercolor of the Mount of the Holy Cross
• Albert Bierstadt’s large early canvas Wind River Country
• Charles Bird King’s Eagle of Delight
• E. Martin Hennings’ Rabbit Hunt

The Petrie Institute also holds an impressive collection of contemporary paintings and sculptures.

The western American art gallery on level 7 of the North Building features the Bernadette Berger Western Library and an educational studio that furnish hands-on activities.

When will the object go on view?

Mountain Lake is currently on view in the western American landscape gallery on Level 7 of the North Building.

Why did the DAM acquire the object?

Albert Bierstadt is one of the most noteworthy American landscape artists of the nineteenth century. This painting is representative of his important role in American art and of his artistic process.

If weekend traffic to the Colorado mountains feels like an inconvenience to the modern traveler, put yourself in the shoes of American landscape painter Charles Partridge Adams.

In the galleries on level seven of the North Building hangs a large oval canvas titled Shoshone Indians at a Mountain Lake. You can’t miss it—mounted in a gilded frame, this brightly colored landscape is an eye-catcher!

Recently, it was my task to research Shoshone Indians at a Mountain Lake and write an essay on the painting. What I learned in a nutshell:

A new exhibition at the Denver Art Museum might just remind you of an ink blot test and prompt you to question, “Where’s the beef?”