Albert Bierstadt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

AlbertBierstadt

AlbertBierstadtbyNapoleonSarony

Born

January7,1830
Solingen,RhineProvince,Prussia

Died

February18,1902(aged72)
NewYorkCity,NewYork

Nationality

American

Education

DsseldorfSchool

Knownfor

Painting

Movement

HudsonRiverSchool

Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 February 18, 1902) was a German-born American painter best
known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. To paint the scenes, Bierstadt joined
several journeys of the Westward Expansion. Though not the first artist to record these sites, Bierstadt
was the foremost painter of these scenes for the remainder of the 19th century.
Born in Germany, Bierstadt was brought to the United States at the age of one by his parents. He later
returned to study painting for several years in Dsseldorf. He became part of the Hudson River School in
New York, an informal group of like-minded painters who started painting along this scenic river. Their
style was based on carefully detailed paintings with romantic, almost glowing lighting, sometimes
called luminism. An important interpreter of the western landscape, Bierstadt, along with Thomas Moran,
is also grouped with the Rocky Mountain School.[1]

Contents
[hide]

1Life and career

2Existing work

3Selected paintings

4Legacy and honors

5See also

6References

7Further reading

8External links

Life and career[edit]

Bierstadt was born in Solingen, Germany, the son of Christina M. (Tillmans) and Henry Bierstadt, a
cooper.[2] The following year, in 1831, his family moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts. At an early age
Bierstadt developed a taste for art and made clever crayon sketches in his youth. In 1851, he began to
paint in oils.[3]

Map of Bierstadt's journey in 1859 and 1863.

He returned to Germany in 1853 and studied painting for several years in Dsseldorf with members of its
informal school of painting. After returning to New Bedford in 1857, he taught drawing and painting
briefly, before devoting himself full-time to painting.
In 1858 he exhibited a large painting of a Swiss landscape at the National Academy of Design, which
gained him positive critical reception and honorary membership in the Academy.[4] At this time Bierstadt
began painting scenes in New England and upstate New York, including in the Hudson River valley. A
group of artists known as the Hudson River School portrayed its majestic landscapes and craggy areas,
as well as the light affected by the changing waters.

Rocky Mountain Landscape, in the White House.

Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California (1868), Smithsonian American Art
Museum, Washington, DC.
In 1859, Bierstadt traveled westward in the company of Frederick W. Lander, a land surveyor for the U.S.
government, to see those landscapes. He returned to a studio he had taken at the Tenth Street Studio
Building in New York with sketches that would result in numerous finished paintings. In 1863 he traveled
west again, this time in the company of the author Fitz Hugh Ludlow, whose wife he would later marry.
Throughout the 1860s, Bierstadt used studies from this trip as the source for large-scale paintings for
exhibition. He continued to visit the American West throughout his career.
During the American Civil War, Bierstadt paid for a substitute to serve in his place when he was drafted
in 1863. He completed one Civil War painting Guerrilla Warfare, Civil War in 1862, based on his brief
experiences with soldiers stationed at Camp Cameron in 1861.[5] Bierstadt's painting was based on
a stereoscopic photograph taken by his brother Edward Bierstadt, who operated a photography studio at
Langley's Tavern in Virginia. Bierstadt's painting received a positive review when it was exhibited at the
Brooklyn Art Association at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in December 1861. Curator Eleanor Jones
Harvey observes that Bierstadt's painting, created from photographs, "is quintessentially that of a voyeur,
privy to the stories and unblemished by the violence and brutality of first-hand combat experience."[5]
In 1860, he was elected a member of the National Academy; he received medals in Austria, Bavaria,
Belgium, and Germany.[6] In 1867 he traveled to London, where he exhibited two landscape paintings in
a private reception with Queen Victoria.[7] He traveled through Europe for two years, cultivating social
and business contacts to sustain the market for his work overseas.[7]

As a result of the publicity generated by his Yosemite paintings, Bierstadt's presence was requested by
every explorer considering a westward expedition, and he was commissioned by the Atchison, Topeka,
and Santa Fe Railroad to visit the Grand Canyon for further subject matter.[8]

Rosalie Bierstadt, unknown date.

Bierstadt's technical proficiency, earned through his study of European landscape, was crucial to his
success as a painter of the American West. It accounted for his popularity in disseminating views of the
Rockies to those who had not seen them.[7] The immense canvases he produced after his trips with
Lander and Ludlow established him as the preeminent painter of the western American landscape.
[7]
Financial recognition confirmed his status: The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak, completed in 1863,
was purchased for $25,000 in 1865.[9]
Despite his popular success, Bierstadt was criticized by some contemporaries for
the romanticism evident in his choices of subject[10] and his use of light was felt to be excessive. His
exhibition pieces were brilliantly crafted images that glorified the American West as a land of promise.
[11]
Bierstadt's choice of grandiloquent subjects was matched by his entrepreneurial flair. His exhibitions
of individual works were accompanied by promotion, ticket sales, and, in the words of one critic, a "vast
machinery of advertisement and puffery."[12]
His wife was diagnosed with consumption in 1876, and from then until her death in 1893, Bierstadt spent
time with her in the warmer climate of Nassau in the Bahamas. He also continued to travel to the West
and Canada. In later life, Bierstadt's work fell increasingly out of critical favor. It was attacked for its
theatrical tone.[7]
In 1882 Bierstadt's studio at Irvington, New York, was destroyed by fire, resulting in the loss of many of
his paintings.[3] By the time of his death on February 18, 1902,[13] the taste for epic landscape painting
had long since subsided. Bierstadt was then largely forgotten. He was buried at the Rural
Cemetery in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Interest in his work was renewed in the 1960s, with the exhibition of his small oil studies.[7] The
subsequent reassessment of Bierstadt's work has placed it in a favorable context:
The temptation (to criticize him) should be steadfastly resisted. Bierstadt's theatrical art, fervent
sociability, international outlook, and unquenchable personal energy reflected the epic expansion in
every facet of western civilization during the second half of the nineteenth century.[14]
Bierstadt was a prolific artist, having completed over 500 paintings during his lifetime.[15] Many of these
are held by museums across the United States.

Existing work[edit]
Main article: List of works by Albert Bierstadt

1855 - The Old Mill

1855 - The Portico of Octavia

1855 - Westphalia

1858 - Lake Lucerne, c. 1853, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

1859 - The Wolf River, Kansas,[16] c. 1859, oil on canvas, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI

1861 - Echo Lake, Franconia Mountains, NH,[17] Smith College Museum of Art,[18] Smith
College, Northampton, MA

1863 - The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak, oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York City, NY

1864 - Cho-looke, the Yosemite Fall, oil on canvas, Timken Museum of Art, San Diego, CA[19]

1864 - Valley of the Yosemite,[20] oil on paper, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

1866 - Yosemite Valley,[21] Oil on canvas on panel-back stretcher, Cleveland Museum of Art,
Cleveland, Ohio

1866 - On the Hudson River Near Irvington, 186670, oil on paper, Berkshire
Museum, Pittsfield, MA

1866 - A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie, oil on canvas, Brooklyn Museum, New
York City, New York

1868 - Connecticut River Valley, Claremont, New Hampshire, 1868, oil on canvas, Berkshire
Museum, Pittsfield, MA
1868 - In the Sierras,[22] Fogg Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

1868 - Among the Sierra Nevada, California,[23] Smithsonian American Art

Museum, Washington, D.C.

1869 - Glen Ellis Falls, oil on canvas, Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ

1871 - Domes of Yosemite,[24] c. 1871, St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, St. Johnsbury, VT

1874 - Giant Redwood Trees of California, c. 1874, oil on canvas, Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield,
MA

1875 - Mount Adams, Washington, 1875, oil on canvas, Princeton University Art
Museum, Princeton, New Jersey

1876 - Mount Corcoran,[25] c. 187677, oil on canvas, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington,
D.C.

1888 - The Last of the Buffalo,[26] oil on canvas, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

1889 - Alaskan Coast Range,[27] c. 1889, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

1891 - The Last of the Buffalo,[28] c. 1891, vintage photogravure, Valley Fine Art Gallery, Aspen,
Colorado

1895 - The Morteratsch Glacier Upper Engadine Valley - Pontresina

Selected paintings[edit]

Roman Fish Market. Arch of Octavius. De Young Museum, San Francisco, California

Guerilla Warfare, Civil War by Albert Bierstadt, 1862, Century Association, New York, NY

Staubbach Falls, Near Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, 1865

Yosemite Valley, Yosemite Park, c. 1868, Oakland Museum, Oakland, California

Storm in the Mountains, c. 1870, Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA

Mount Adams, Washington, 1875, Princeton University Art Museum

Mount Corcoran, c. 187677, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gosnold at Cuttyhunk (c. 1858), New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, MA

The Marina Piccola, Capri (1859), Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Indians Spear Fishing, 1862

The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak(1863), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City,
New York

Looking Down Yosemite Valley (1865), Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama

Lake Tahoe (1868), Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Sierra Nevada (c. 18711873), Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem,
North Carolina.

Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mount Rosalie (1866), Brooklyn Museum, New York

California Spring, 1875, De Young Museum, San Francisco, California

Light in the Forest, unknown date

Legacy and honors[edit]

Bierstadt Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park

Because of Bierstadt's interest in mountain landscapes, Mount Bierstadt and Bierstadt

Lake in Colorado are named in his honor. Bierstadt was probably the first European to visit the
summit of Mount Evans in 1863, 1.5 miles from Mount Bierstadt.[29] Bierstadt named it Mount Rosa,
a reference to both Monte Rosa above Zermatt and, Rosalie Ludlow, his future wife, but the name
was changed from Rosalie to Evans in 1895 in honor of Colorado governor John Evans.

In 1998, the United States Postal Service issued a set of 20 commemorative stamps entitled
"Four Centuries of American Art", one of which featured Albert Bierstadt's The Last of the Buffalo.
[30]
In 2008, the USPS issued a commemorative stamp in its "American Treasures" series featuring
Bierstadt's 1864 painting Valley of the Yosemite.[31]

Valley of the Yosemite[32] also appears in a scene in Terry Gilliam's 1995 film Twelve Monkeys,
accompanied by several doctors singing "Blueberry Hill".[33]
William Bliss Baker, another landscape artist, studied under Bierstadt.

See also[edit]

List of Hudson River School artists

List of works by Albert Bierstadt

Edward Bierstadt

History of painting

Western painting

References[edit]
1.
05-20.
2.

Jump up^ "Picturing America's Natural Cathedrals". Tfaoi.com. Retrieved 2012-

Jump up^ [1]

3.

4.

^ Jump up to:a b
Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1900). "Bierstadt,
Albert". Appletons' Cyclopdia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
Jump up^ "Artist Info". nga.gov.

5.

^ Jump up to:a b Harvey, Eleanor Jones (2012). The Civil War and American Art.
Smithsonian American Art Museum; Metropolitan Museum of Art. Yale University
Press. ISBN 978-0-300-18733-5.

6.

Jump up^
Reynolds, Francis J., ed. (1921). "Bierstadt, Albert". Collier's New
Encyclopedia. New York: P.F. Collier & Son Company.

7.

^ Jump up to:a b c d e f National Gallery of Art

8.

Jump up^ Barringer and Wilton, 250

9.

10.
11.

12.

Jump up^ "Albert Bierstadt: The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak (07.123) Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History - The Metropolitan Museum of Art". metmuseum.org.
Jump up^ "Albert Bierstadt Images". Images.google.com. Retrieved 2012-05-20.
Jump up^ "Among the Sierra Nevada, California by Albert Bierstadt / American
Art". si.edu.
Jump up^ Smithsonian American Art Museum

13.

Jump up^
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bierstadt, Albert". Encyclopdia
Britannica. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

14.

Jump up^ Howat, John K., editor. American Paradise: The World of the Hudson
River School, 284. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987. ISBN 9780870994975

15.

Jump up^ Glenda Moore (2004-09-09). "xmission.com". xmission.com.

Retrieved 2012-12-19.

16.

Jump up^ "Albert Bierstadt: The Wolf River, Kansas (61.28) The Detroit
Institute of Arts". Dia.org. Retrieved 2013-07-05.

17.

Jump up^ "Echo Lake, Franconia Mountains, New Hampshire / North American /
Art of the Americas / Highlights By Category / Collection Highlights / Collections / Smith
College Museum of Art - Smith College Museum of Art". Scma.smith.edu.
Retrieved 2013-07-05.

18.

Jump up^ "Home / Smith College Museum of Art - Smith College Museum of
Art". Smith.edu. Retrieved 2013-07-05.

19.

Jump up^ "Cho-looke, the Yosemite Fall, 1864". Timken Museum of Art.
Archived from the original on February 21, 2009.

20.

Jump up^ "Valley of the Yosemite". Retrieved 31 May 2014.

21.

Jump up^ "Yosemite Valley".

22.

Jump up^ "In the Sierras". Harvard Art Museums. Retrieved 2013-07-05.

23.

Jump up^ "Among the Sierra Nevada, California". Smithsonian American Art
Museum. Retrieved 31 May 2014.

24.

Jump up^ "St. Johnsbury Athenaeum>>This Week from the Gallery Archives".
Stjathenaeum.org. Retrieved 2013-07-05.

25.

Jump up^ "Mount Corcoran | Corcoran". Collection.corcoran.org.

Retrieved 2013-07-05.

26.

Jump up^ "The Last of the Buffalo | Corcoran". Collection.corcoran.org.

Retrieved 2013-07-05.

27.

Jump up^ "Alaskan Coast Range". Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Retrieved 31 May 2014.

28.
29.

Jump up^ "Valley Fine Art". Valley Fine Art Gallery. Retrieved 2 March2015.
Jump up^ William Newton Byers, Bierstadt's Visit to Colorado: Sketching for the
famous painting Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Magazine of Western History, Vol. XI, No.
3, Jan. 1890; page 237.

30.
05-20.

Jump up^ "ArtOnStamps.org". ArtOnStamps.org. 2010-07-09. Retrieved 2012-

31.

Jump up^ "The Postal Store @ USPS.com". Shop.usps.com. 2011-03-28.

Retrieved 2012-05-20.

32.

Jump up^ "image of Valley of the Yosemite". Retrieved 2012-12-19.

33.

Jump up^ "Twelve Monkeys (1995)". IMDb.

Further reading[edit]

American paradise: the world of the Hudson River school. New York: The Metropolitan Museum
of Art. 1987. ISBN 9780870994968.

Anderson, Nancy K. et al. Albert Bierstadt, Art & Enterprise, Hudson Hills Press, Inc.: New
York, New York, 1990.

Barringer, Tim and Wilton, Andrew. American Sublime: Landscape Painting in the United States
1820-1880, Princeton University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-691-09670-8

Hendricks, Gordon. Albert Bierstadt, Painter of the American West, Harrison House/Harry N.
Abrams, Inc.: New York, New York 1988.

Miller, Angela. "Albert Bierstadt, Landscape Aesthetics, and the Meanings of the West in the
Civil War Era." Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 27, no. 1 (Terrain of Freedom: American
Art and the Civil War) (2001): 40-59 and 101-102.

External links[edit]
WikimediaCommonshas
mediarelatedtoAlbert
Bierstadt.

Works by or about Albert Bierstadt at Internet Archive

White Mountain paintings by Albert Bierstadt

Albert Bierstadt letter collection, 1880-1893 from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art

Museum of Nebraska Art MONA Moment

Gallery of Bierstadt's Paintings

The Winterthur Library Overview of an archival collection on Albert Bierstadt.

Albert Bierstadt Paintings Gallery 345 images online

The R.W. Norton Art Gallery: Albert Bierstadt's Biography

Albert Bierstadt at Find a Grave Retrieved November 28, 2013

Paintings Gallery
[hide]

HudsonRiverSchool