Looking Down Yosemite Valley, California

{{Short description|1865 oil painting by Albert Bierstadt}}

{{Infobox Artwork

| image_file=Looking_Down_Yosemite-Valley.jpg

| title=Looking Down Yosemite Valley, California

| artist=Albert Bierstadt

| year={{Start date|1865}}

| medium=Oil on canvas

| height_metric=163.83

| width_metric=245.11

| metric_unit=cm

| imperial_unit=in

| museum=Birmingham Museum of Art

}}

Looking Down the Yosemite Valley, California is an 1865 painting by the German-American painter Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902).{{cite web |title=Looking Down Yosemite Valley Returns |url=http://www.artsbma.org/about/current-news/item/403-looking-down-yosemite-valley-returns |publisher=Birmingham Art Museum |accessdate=January 22, 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110816155307/http://www.artsbma.org/about/current-news/item/403-looking-down-yosemite-valley-returns |archivedate=August 16, 2011 |url-status=dead }}

It was Bierstadt's first large-scale Yosemite picture, a subject for which he would become well known. It presents a view of one of America's most scenic spots. Based on sketches made during a visit in 1863, Bierstadt paints the valley from a vantage point just above the Merced River, looking due west with the prospect framed by El Capitan on the right, and Sentinel Rock on the left; the spire of Middle Cathedral Rock is visible in the distance.