Albert Bierstadt

Albert Bierstadt was a German American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was not the first artist to record the sites, but he was the foremost painter of them for the remainder of the 19th century. Bierstadt was born in Prussia, but his family moved to the United States when he was one year old. He returned to study painting for several years in Düsseldorf. He became part of the second generation of the Hudson River School in New York, an informal group of like-minded painters who started painting along the Hudson River. Their style was based on carefully detailed paintings with romantic, almost glowing lighting, sometimes called luminism. Bierstadt was an important interpreter of the western landscape, and he is also grouped with the Rocky Mountain School. He painted scenes of majestic mountains, waterfalls, rivers, and valleys, often with Native Americans or pioneers in the foreground. He also depicted wildlife such as bears, deer, and bison. His paintings were highly popular and sold for large sums of money during his lifetime. Bierstadt's fame and fortune declined in the 1870s, as his style fell out of favor with critics and audiences who preferred more realistic and modern art. He also faced competition from photographers who could capture the western scenery more accurately and cheaply. He continued to paint until his death in 1902 from heart failure. He is buried in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he had lived for many years.