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 :. | The_Plains_Near_Fort_Laramie | The Sunset at Monterey Bay | The_Sierra_Nevadas | Bridal Veil Falls. Yosemite | Mountain Lake |
Related Artists:
Ellen Bernard Thompson
American , 1876-1936
marcel duchamp
marche duchamp (1887 to 1968),French painter, sculptor and writer. The art and ideas of Duchamp, perhaps more than those of any other 20th-century artist, have served to exemplify the range of possibilities inherent in a more conceptual approach to the art-making process. Not only is his work of historical importance
Louis Welden Hawkins
British 1849-1910 Louis Welden Hawkins Galleries Louis Welden Hawkins was born in Germany ( 1 July 1849 ). His mother was an Austrian Baroness, his father Englishman. Hawkins moved soon to France and took later French nationality. Hawkins attended the famous Acad??mie Julian in Paris. Hawkins became famous after his expositions in the Salon de la Societe des Artistes Francais. His first work was shown in the Salon in 1881. After that, expositions followed at the Salon de la Societe des Beaux Artes (1894-1911), the Salon de la Rose-Croix (1894-95) and La Libre Esthetque in Brussels. He spended his last years in Brittany, where he painted mostly landscapes. Louis Welden Hawkins died in 1910 and was honoured a year later at the Salon Nationale.