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Albert Bierstadt
The Sierra Nevada in California
72.01 x 120.00 in / 182.9 x 304.8 cm Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA
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Albert Bierstadt
View of the Parliament Buildings from the Grounds of Rideau Halls
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Albert Bierstadt
View of the Parliament Buildings from the Grounds of Rideau Halls
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Albert Bierstadt
The Yosemite Valley
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Albert Bierstadt
Valley of the Yosemite
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Albert Bierstadt
Sunset in the Rockies
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Albert Bierstadt
Mirror Lake, Yosemite Valley
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Albert Bierstadt
Hetch Hetchy Canyon
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Albert Bierstadt
Merced River in Yosemite
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Albert Bierstadt
Hetch Hetchy Valley
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Albert Bierstadt
A Rustic Mill
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Albert Bierstadt
Haying, Conway Meadows
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Albert Bierstadt
Yosemite Falls
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Albert Bierstadt
Nevada Falls
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Albert Bierstadt
The Matterhorn
29.49 x 49.49 in / 74.9 x 125.7 cm
The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC
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Albert Bierstadt
Surveyor's Wagon in the Rockies
1859
7.76 x 12.87 ins / 19.7 x 32.7 cm
The Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri
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Albert Bierstadt
Newbraska Wasatch Mountains
1859
13.27 x 19.25 ins / 33.7 x 48.9 cm
The Phelan Collection
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Albert Bierstadt
Cathedral Rock, Yosemite Valley
1872
13.86 x 19.13 ins / 35.2 x 48.6 cm
Collection of Ryan M. Cooper
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Albert Bierstadt
Landscape with Deer
1876
9.02 x 12.99 ins / 22.9 x 33 cm
Private collection
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Albert Bierstadt
Nassau Harbor
1877
14.76 x 20.00 ins / 37.5 x 50.8 cm
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California
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| Albert Bierstadt
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German-born American Hudson River School Painter, 1830-1902
Bierstadt was born in Solingen, Germany. His family moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1833. He studied painting with the members of the D??sseldorf School in D??sseldorf, Germany from 1853 to 1857. He taught drawing and painting briefly before devoting himself to painting.
Bierstadt began making paintings in New England and upstate New York. In 1859, he traveled westward in the company of a Land Surveyor for the U.S. government, returning with sketches that would result in numerous finished paintings. In 1863 he returned west again, in the company of the author Fitz Hugh Ludlow, whose wife he would later marry. He continued to visit the American West throughout his career.
Though his paintings sold for princely sums, Bierstadt was not held in particularly high esteem by critics of his day. His use of uncommonly large canvases was thought to be an egotistical indulgence, as his paintings would invariably dwarf those of his contemporaries when they were displayed together. The romanticism evident in his choices of subject and in his use of light was felt to be excessive by contemporary critics. His paintings emphasized atmospheric elements like fog, clouds and mist to accentuate and complement the feel of his work. Bierstadt sometimes changed details of the landscape to inspire awe. The colors he used are also not always true. He painted what he believed is the way things should be: water is ultramarine, vegetation is lush and green, etc. The shift from foreground to background was very dramatic and there was almost no middle distance
Nonetheless, his paintings remain popular. He was a prolific artist, having completed over 500 (possibly as many as 4000) paintings during his lifetime, most of which have survived. Many are scattered through museums around the United States. Prints are available commercially for many. Original paintings themselves do occasionally come up for sale, at ever increasing prices.
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