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 :. | Westphalian_Landscap | The Wetterhorn | Dogwood by Albert Bierstadt | Les Montagnes Rocheuses,Lander's Peak | The Wolf River, Kansas |
Related Artists:
Auguste Chabaud
1882-1955,French painter, sculptor and writer. He trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Avignon with Pierre Grivolas (1824-1905). After moving to Paris in 1899 he attended Fernand Cormon's atelier in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and William-Adolphe Bouguereau's studio in the Acad?mie Julian. He also studied at the Acad?mie Carriere, where he met Matisse, Jean Puy, Andre Derain and Pierre Laprade. While family responsibilities from 1901 and military service in World War I sharply curtailed much of his early output, he nonetheless produced noteworthy paintings and sculptures from 1907, the first year he exhibited at the Paris Salon, to 1913, when he exhibited at the Armory Show in New York.
Julius L.Stewart
American Painter, 1855-1919 American artist, was born in Philadelphia. His father, William Hood Stewart, was a distinguished collector of the fine arts, an early patron of Fortuny and the Barbizon artists, and lived in Paris during the latter part of his life. The son was a pupil of JL Gerome, at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and of Raymondo de Madrazo. Among his principal paintings are The Hunt Ball, Essex Club, Newark, New Jersey.
Cornelius Gijsbrechts
Flemish Baroque Era Painter, ca.1630-1675