Albert Bierstadt

Albert Bierstadt
"Albert Bierstadt" by Napoleon Sarony
Born	January 07 1830(1830-01-07) Solingen, Germany
Died	February 18 1902 (aged 72)
Nationality	German-American
Field	painting
Training	Düsseldorf School
Movement	Hudson River School
Famous works	The Rocky Mountains: Lander's Peak, 1863
Influenced	William Bliss Baker

Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 - February 18, 1902) was a German-American painter best known for his large realistic landscapes of the American West. In obtaining the subject matter for these works, 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.

Bierstadt was almost an extension of the Hudson River School, which while not an institution was, rather, an informal group of like-minded painters. The Hudson River School style involved carefully detailed paintings with romantic, almost glowing lighting, sometimes called luminism. However that style began to wane with the influence of the Barbizon school of artists in France. Bierstadt, nevertheless, continued to produce American landscapes in his own fashion long after the Hudson River artists had peaked and continued through the beginnings of Impressionism in Europe. He was a bridge from the romance of Thomas Cole to the realism of the Ashcan School and seemed to reflect what many Americans liked at that time. Although not fully recognized in his lifetime he is now regarded as one of the greatest landscape artists in history.

Early Life

Bierstadt was born in Solingen, Germany. His family moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1833. In 1850 he decided on an art career and offered to teach monochromatic painting there. The following year and by 1853, after beginning to exhibit and sell a little he was able to inspire his family and others to send him to Düsseldorf to study. His mother's cousin, Johan Peter Hasenclever, was a teacher in the studios there and at this point this was the newest and most popular of art schools, in Europe. The members of the Düsseldorf School descended from painter, Peter von Cornelius, a director of the Dusseldorf Academy. He'd made may reforms, including less stress on working from casts and more from life and placed an emphasis on landscape painting, which Bierstadt liked. There was even a professorship for a landscape painter which was unique for it's time. Although Bierstadt had meant to study under Hasenclever, he had just died and the landscape teacher was absent, starting a school elsewhere. He turned to fellow American, Worthington Whittredge and Emmanuel Leutze. Leutze had painted Washington Crossing the Delaware and thought that, "Here was another waif to be taken care of." Whittredge, thought otherwise, noting the young artist's frugality and independence, took him in hand and wrote often of his progress.

Whenever weather permitted, Albert traversed Westphalia, filling his sketchbooks and making oil studies which he later worked up in the studio into full paintings. His work ethic was prodigious and he was said to never let any daylight go to waste. Of these was, Westphalia 1855, Oil on canvas, 43x 58 1/2" (109.3x148.6cm) Private Collection, a piece of exquisite realism. These works were then shipped off to New Bedford where they were duly sold soon giving him an income that he'd formerly lacked.

In 1856, Albert set off, with friends, from Germany, through Switzerland to Italy where he stayed for a year, studying and painting. His works there, included; Italian Village Scene (Olevano), 1860. Oil on canvas, 30x48" (72.6x121.9cm) Butler McCook Homestead, Antiquarian and Landmark Society, Inc., of Connecticut, Hartford. Fishing boats at Capri, 1857. Oil on paper mounted on canvas, 13 1/2x19 1/2" (34.3x49.5) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. M. and M. Karolik Collection.

On returning home via England he worked up his many European compositions into finished compositions that he sold to the Boston Atheneum. One work, The Old Mill, was sold separately to a New Bedford family and has remained in it ever since.

Career

On his return to New England, Bierstadt set to work in earnest and when he first opened his studio to the public the public and the press were surprised by his talent. His reputation had been private up to this point with one or two works in local homes. Within a month home, he'd produced four major European landscapes, including, Spear Fishing (Lake Lucerne?) 1857-58. Oil on canvas, 31 1/2x49" (80x124.5cm). The Los Angeles Athletic Club, which was mentioned in the local press. He worked with an energy that did not fail him over the next forty years. At this time he advertised to teach once again but in a year aquired only four pupils. It was during this time that he painted one of his few portraits, that of an old Indian woman, Martha Simon, 1857, Oil on cardboard, 19x13" 948.2X33cm) The Millicent Library Collection.

Late in 1858, he painted his first historical painting, Gosnold at Cuttyhunk,1602. Oil on canvas, 28x49" (71.1x124.5cm). Courtesy of the The Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts. This was a site on the Elizabeth Islands that New Bedford's founder Bartholomew Gosnold, first set foot and later traded with the Indians. Bierstadt, painted the wild life, flora and fauna, of this untouched wilderness and his heartfelt feelings for that kind of pristine place never left him.

In April 1859 he set out to travel west to the Rockies. Now he was determined to capture the American West on canvas and there he succeeded beyond many of his peers. Before leaving, New Bedford citizens were advised to buy his works whilst prices were right. The inference here was that the West was a harsh and demanding place that the artist may never return from! Taking with him a companion, Boston artist, F.S. Frost, to help him with photography, Bierstadt, armed with a stereograph camera and an introduction from the Secretary of War, for the military posts along the way, joined the wagon train of Colonel William Frederick Lander, Chief Engineer, for the US government. Lander's brief was to remap the Overland Trail, to the north and owing to a massacre by Mormons and Indians on westbound immigrants, near Cedar City, Utah, to the west. Joining them in Missouri, the young artist set out for the greatest adventure of his young life. Many adventures took them across rivers and plains and many stereographic photographs, especially of the Indians, survive to this day, together with his sketches, some of which were later made into woodcuts by Harper's Weekly, back east. Although he had technical problems with making good photographs of scenery, he created a unique record of the whole trip until finally they reached the famed Wind River Mountains.

In an oft quoted letter to The Crayon magazine, dated July 10th, 1859, he wrote that as a lover of nature and Art, he could not have wished for any better subjects. His letter is full of description of the region, their taking of the stereoscopic pictures and relationship with the indigenous peoples and his awe of these western mountains which unlike any other. Finally he told of his decision to turn back, away from the Lander's party in order to escape the coming rains that made travel so difficult and return home. Returning had it's extra travails and they had to subsist on game mostly but he was clearly enjoying himself. At Fort Laramie he was able to create portraits of Indians there, no mean feat, as many of them thought that their souls were being stolen! Bierstadt began to realize that the American West had more in thrall for him than the European scenery that he'd revered and commented on the cloud formations, the play of light and shadow and golden sunsets he had never before experienced.

On return and back in New Bedford, with many Indian artifacts, which would later become a large collection, he quickly set to capture on canvas, his summer's journey. Of these, included; On the Platte River, Nebraska.Undated. Oil on pasteboard, 8x10" (20.3x25.4cm). Thomas Gilcrease Institute, Tulsa, an example of a study made en route. Those worked up on his return, include; Horse in the Wilderness 1859-60? Oil on board, 14x20" (35.6X50.8cm). Private Collection, Washington, D.C. Thunderstorm in the Rocky Mountains. 1859. Oil on Canvas, 19x29" (48.2x73.7cm). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Indian Encampment, Shoshone Village. 1860. Oil on canvas mounted on board, 24x19" (60.9x48.2cm). The New York Historical Society, New York City.

He also moved to New York City by the end of that year. Before he did that, ever mindful of family, he helped his elder brothers, Charles and Edward, to start a photography business, which not only showed their local work but Alberts' western stereographs. The brothers later became famous photographers, both in Niagara Falls and New York City. In New York City Albert took a place in the new and famous Studio Building, used by many distinguished artists, including, John La Farge and Frederick E. Church. He was not an instant success but did gain a reputation as the artistic spokesman of the American West. That time was a difficult one for artists as the Civil War had come into being.

In the Fall of 1861, Bierdstadt and an old friend, got a five day pass to tour the Northern camps around Washington, DC., to gather material about the war as did his brother, Edward. His sketches for, Guerrilla Warfare. 1862. Oil on panel, 14 3/4x17 1/2" (37.5X44.5). Century Association, New York City. were shown in New York. Also painted, although from imagination, was, The Bombardment of Fort Sumter. 1863? Oil on canvas, 26x68" (66x172.8cm). The Union League of Philadelphia.

In 1863 he returned West again, in the company of two friends and the author Fitz Hugh Ludlow, who'd gained infamy with a book of his personal addiction as "The Hasheesh Eater" and whose wife, Rosalie Osbourne, Biestadt would later marry. Ludlow was to write an account of their travels for Atlantic Monthly and in 1870, a book, The Heart of the Continent, illustrated by Bierstadts' sketches. Travelling in grand style to their jumping off place in Kansas, Atchison, free passage was given by the then, Railway Presidents. After many adventures, Buffalo hunting and painting and with an introduction to Brigham Young, they arrived at the crystal waters of Lake Tahoe, in the California Sierras.

Paintings from this period include; Emigrants Crossing the Plains. 1867. Oil on canvas, 60x96" (152.4x243.8cm). The National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center, Oklahoma City and The Oregon Trail. 1869. Oil on canvas, 31x49" (78.7x124.5cm). The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio.

From there they travelled to San Francisco where they were wined and dined and it may have been at this time that Albert met Eadweard J. Muybridge, the photographer of movement and whom he revered as a great artist. Reuniting with other old friends from his European days, his party moved on to the newly found Yosemite Valley.

A spectacular view of the falls there resulted in Camping in the Yosemite. 1864. Oil on canvas, 43X27" (86.4X68.6 cm). Another of those that he painted as a result there, was, California Redwoods, 1875? Oil on Canvas, 117x50" (297.2x127cm)Private Collection, New Hampshire. At the base of "Giant Grizzly," one of the trees in the Mariposa grove, stands the Yosemite pioneer Galen Clark whom he met there. From Alberts' studies there, the Yosemite paintings were born that he later would become world famous for. Ever onward, the party headed to Mt. Shasta north of Sacramento and upwards to Oregon to view the Cascades, "one of the most magnificent views in all earthly scenery." Thanking God for this he made studies of Mt. Hood which later became a painting said to be better even than, The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak. Returning by steamer from there they departed for San Francisco and by way of Panama arrived in New Year by December, 1863.

By 1864, Bierstadt had equalled and even surpassed Frederick E. Church as America's leading landscapist. Even England called him the successor to Turner. He and Church were exhibited opposite one another along with six hundred other works at the Sanitary Fair, New York, with Bierstadt adding a number of Indian artifacts. This show was lit by 490 gas jets at night. Church also asked Bierstadt's advice on his Niagara when he wanted to exhibit it. Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak. 1863, Oil on canvas, 73 1/2x120 3/4" (186.7x306.7cm). The Metroploitan Museum of Art, New York City, Rogers Fund 1907. sold for $25,000, the largest sum ever paid for an American painting. The buyer, an American living in London took it to Europe but Albert was able to buy it back later and either gave it or sold it to his brother from where it went into the family and now resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For many years when Albert wanted to give his friends a particular compliment he gave them an autographed engraved copy of this famous painting. He was not without his critics however, some who found his technical brilliance lacking in heart, whilst others thought that he captured the true feeling of these great scenes.

In July 1866 his father died but in November he gained a wife, Rosalie Osbourne Ludlow, divorced from a difficult marriage to his old friend and author, in Waterford, New York. With the need for a real home, Bierstadt built Malkasten in Irvington, New York, on the banks of the Hudson, close to Washington Irvingston's, 'Sunnyside'. In 1867, he and his wife sailed for Europe where they stayed for two years, with studios in London, Paris and Rome. On their return, Albert continued to visit and paint 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. However, his customers had great houses with great walls and wanted great paintings. The romanticism evident in his choices of subject and his use of light was felt to be excessive by contemporary critics, a charge that continues to be leveled by many of today's art historians. 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.^{[citation needed]}

Storm in the Rocky Mountains (Mount Rosa), 1886

Nonetheless, his paintings remain popular to this day.

Existing Work

• Oregon Trail, 1869 at the Butler Institute of American Art
• Alaskan Coast Range, ca. 1889 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
• Among the Sierra Nevada, California, 1868 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
• Domes of Yosemite ca. 1871 at the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, St. Johnsbury, Vermont
• Cathedral Rocks, Yosemite Valley, ca. 1872 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
• Gates of the Yosemite, ca. 1882 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
• Indians in Council, California, ca. 1872 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
• San Francisco Bay, 1871-1873 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
• Sunrise in the Sierras, ca. 1872 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
• Sierra Nevada Morning at the Gilcrease Museum

Legacy

Albert Bierstadt was a prolific artist, having completed over 500 known (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.

Because of Bierstadt's interest in mountain landscapes, Mount Bierstadt in Colorado is named in his honor. Another Colorado mountain was originally named Mount Rosa, after Bierstadt's wife, but it was later renamed Mount Evans after 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. [1]

William Bliss Baker, another landscape artist, studied under Bierstadt.

Gallery

• 

  In Western Mountains

• 

  Mount Hood, 1869

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  Moat Mountain, Intervale, New Hampshire

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  Cathedral Rock

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  Yosemite Valley Yellowstone National Park

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  Yosemite Valley, California

• 

  Western Kansas

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  View of Chimney Rock Ogalillalh Sioux Village in Foreground

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  Tropical Landscape with Fishing Boats in Bay

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  The Golden Gate

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  On the Saco

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  Island of New Providence

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  Staubbach Falls Near Lauterbrunnen Switzerland

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  Seals on the Rocks Farallon Islands

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  Elk

• 

  A Rocky Mountain Sheep Ovis, Montana

See also

• History of painting
• Western painting
• Edward Bierstadt

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Anderson, Nancy K. et. at. Albert Bierstadt, Art & Enterprise, Hudson Hills Press, Inc.: New York, New York, 1990.
• Hendricks, Gordon. Albert Bierstadt, Painter of the American West Harry N.Abrams, Inc. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 73-14954
• Hendricks, Gordon. Albert Bierstadt, Painter of the American West, Harrison House/Harry N.Abrams, Inc.: New York, New York 1988.
• Hendricks, Gordon. ABierstadt. An essay and catalogue. Amon Carter Museum Fort Worth. 1972. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 70-184170

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Albert Bierstadt

• White Mountain paintings by Albert Bierstadt. Retrieved May 3, 2008.
• Albert Bierstadt Biography and Images: Hollis Taggart Galleries. Retrieved May 3, 2008.
• Gallery of Bierstadt's Paintings. Retrieved May 3, 2008.
• The Winterthur Library Overview of an archival collection on Albert Bierstadt. Retrieved May 3, 2008.

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