Oil painting -> List of Painters -> Albert Bierstadt

Early days: Albert Bierstadtwas born in Solingen, Germany in  January 8, 1830 .When he  was two years old, his family migrated from Germany to America and settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts.Bierstadt returned to Dusseldor,Germany  by  1853.Between 1853 and 1857,he studied  painting with the members of  Düsseldorf School in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Career:

Bierstadt  was popular for  his huge  landscapes of the American West. When he returned  to the United States, he organized an exhibition in New Bedford of 150 paintings which included paintings of  the major artists of his day. His painting The Portico of Octavia Rome was bought by the independent libraries in the United States, Boston Athenæum which turned out to be  a major phase of his career.

From 1859 he made around 3 trips to the west and each time he created  several landscapes.He traveled to Colorado and Wyoming territories painting numerous  landscapes, in the companionship of a United States government survey expedition.When he returned to  his studio in New York,he  used the above sketches  and painted large(6ft by 10ft) panoramic views  of western scenery.The paintings included Looking Down Yosemite Valley and Thunderstorm in the Rocky Mountains,which were well known for its romantic and theatrical  representation of the splendor  of the American West. Through these paintings,Bierstadt became extremely popular during 1860’s.

Bierstadt was part of the Hudson River School, which was a mid-19th century American art movement consisting of a group of landscape painters whose artistic vision was influenced by romanticism.

Bierstadt's paintings were extensively exhibited in the United States and abroad and commanded some of the maximum prices in American art at the time, although his status began to decline in the 1880s in the face of shifting public tastes.

Bierstadt passed away  in New York City on February 18, 1902. He is buried in Rural Cemetery in  New Bedford, Massachusetts.