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.  Related Paintings of Albert Bierstadt :. | View of Wetterhorn from the Valley of Grindelwald | Landscape, New Hampshire | Multnomah Falls | Nassau Harbor | Gosnold at Cuttyhunk |
Related Artists:
Charles Frederic Ulrich
Charles Frederic Ulrich (1858, New York City - 1908, Berlin), was an American painter. According to the RKD he worked in the Netherlands ca. 1890. He attended the Royal Academy in Munich, Germany, as did William Merritt Chase, who like him, was influenced by Dutch Golden Age painting and who has been documented as painting his portrait. He was discovered by Thomas B. Clarke, a lace and linen manufacturer in New York who became a collector of contemporary American art. Ulrich painted his portrait in gratitude after his painting "In the Land of Promise, Castle Garden" was shown at the National Academy of Design, where it won the National Academy's first Thomas B. Clarke Prize for Best American Figure Composition.
Cristofano Gherardi
(November 25, 1508 - April 1556) was an Italian painter of the late-Renaissance or Mannerist period, active mainly in Florence and Tuscany. He was born in Borgo San Sepolcro and also called il Doceno dal Borgo. He was the pupil of the painter Raffaellino del Colle, in whose shop he encountered Rosso Fiorentino and Giorgio Vasari. He painted under Vasari's direction, the one assistant of Vasari's whom Sidney J. Freedberg singles out. In 1536 Vasari invited him to Florence to assist in producing the decorations for the ceremonial entry of Charles V into Florence. The following year, in the reaction after Duke Alessandro's death, Gherardi was among those banished from Florence, so his work for Vasari was confined to projects outside Florence, until his banishment was lifted in 1554 and he was permitted to return . In the long interval he had painted the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth for the church of San Domenico in Citte di Castello, church decorations in San Sepolcro, and works for the Vitelli, who were long-term patrons. Gherardi, in the two years left to him, assisted Vasari in the Quartiere degli Elementi in Palazzo Vecchio. Vasari's main assistant after Gherardi's demise was Jan van der Straat, called Giovanni Stradano.
Alfred Seifert
(September 6, 1850 Praskolesy, Bohemia - February 6, 1901, Munich, Germany) was a Czech-German painter, famous for his female portraits. He was born in Praskolesy (present-day Czech Republic) but within a few months, his family moved to nearby Hořovice. As a child, he fell seriously ill, could not walk for four years and spent two years in an orthopedic institution. Instead of playing, he started to draw pictures and his artistic talent soon started to emerge. His first teachers were Karel Werbs, inspector of Estates Gallery at Prague Castle, and Alois Kirnig, landscape painter.