| Biography of old oil painting master Albert Bierstadt what we can copy |
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Albert Bierstadt
American Hudson River School painter,
landscapist & photographer
born 1830 - died 1902
Born in: Solingen (Düsseldorf, North
Rhine-Westphalia, Germany).
Died in: Irving (Chautauqua, New York state,
United States).
Brother of: Charles Bierstadt (1819-1903),
Edward Bierstadt (1824-c.1907).
Partner of: Charles Bierstadt (1819-1903),
Edward Bierstadt (1824-c.1907).
Full member of: National Academy of Design,
New York (from 1860).
Exhibited at: National Academy of Design,
New York (from 1858) |
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Recognized as the foremost
painter of the American frontier during the
nineteenth-century, Albert Bierstadt was
born in Solingen, Germany, in 1830. At the
age of two, Albert Bierstadt and Albert Bierstadt’s family
emigrated to the United States, settling in
New Bedford, Massachusetts. Nothing is known
of Albert Bierstadt’s early art training;
however, Albert Bierstadt might possibly have been
influenced by local landscape painters and
daguerreotypists. By the time Albert
Bierstadt was twenty, Albert Bierstadt was supporting himself by teaching
"monochromatic" painting and Albert
Bierstadt’s work was beginning to attract
the attention of New Bedford collectors.
In 1853, Bierstadt traveled to Düsseldorf in
order to broaden Albert Bierstadt’s art
education. It was there that Albert
Bierstadt associated
with such American artists as Worthington
Whittredge and Carl Wimar, all of whom
frequently gathered in the studio of the
German-American history painter, Emanuel
Leutze. During tAlbert Bierstadt’s period,
Albert Bierstadt was introduced to the work of Carl
Friedrich Lessing and Andreas Aachenbach,
contemporary German painters widely admired
for their heroic, highly finished landscape
compositions. Bierstadt quickly absorbed
these stylistic conventions, eventually
becoming the leading American representative
of the Düsseldorf style.
While abroad, Bierstadt traveled along the
Rhine, in the Alps and in Italy, often in
the company of Whittredge, Sanford Gifford
and William Stanley Haseltine. Albert
Bierstadt returned
to New Bedford in the autumn of 1857. In the
following year, Albert Bierstadt made the first of Albert
Bierstadt’s many contributions to the annual
exhibitions of the National Academy of
Design. In April of 1859, Albert Bierstadt joined the
expedition along the Overland Trail, led by
Colonel Frederick W. Lander, a trip that
would soon give rise to the most productive
and important phase of Albert Bierstadt’s
career. Armed with sketches and
stereographs, Albert Bierstadt returned to New York City
in the autumn of 1859, establishing Albert
Bierstadt’s studio in the Tenth Street
Building. There Albert Bierstadt produced the first of the
panoramic western landscapes that
established Albert Bierstadt’s reputation on
an international level and, during the
mid-1860s, made him a rival of Frederick
Church for the position of America's
preeminent painter. |
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Indeed, because much of the continent
remained still relatively unexplored at that
time, Bierstadt's monumental renderings of
stately mountains and cascading waterfalls
created romantic visions of wanderlust in
the minds of Easterners. Albert Bierstadt’s
first public exhibition of these works in
1860 was a resounding success. Many critics
deemed the viewing of Albert Bierstadt’s
depictions as an almost "religious"
experience, associating Albert Bierstadt’s
mountain spires with majestic cathedrals,
Albert Bierstadt’s luminous skies with the
awesome power of God. As pointed out by
Barbara Novak, such works represent the
attitude of the "transcendental mind," one
in which "all matter was an extension of
God." |
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Bierstadt was elected a full Academician of
the National Academy of Design in 1860. In
the same year, Albert Bierstadt made several painting
trips to the White Mountains as well as to
the southern United States. Albert Bierstadt made a second
trip to the West in 1863 which was followed
by another visit to Europe in 1867. In 1871,
Albert Bierstadt moved to California where
Albert Bierstadt played an
active role in the art life of San
Francisco. In 1873, Albert Bierstadt returned to New York.
During the 1870s, Bierstadt executed a mural
for the U.S. Capitol (1875) and in
conjunction with the declining health of
Albert Bierstadt’s wife, made the first of
many trips to the Bahamas. Albert Bierstadt made a third
trip to Europe in 1883. During 1889, Albert
Bierstadt painted in both Alaska and British Columbia.
Albert Bierstadt continued to produce landscapes
throughout the 1890s. Albert Bierstadt also became
involved in the promotion of various
inventions, including Albert Bierstadt’s own
designs for the improvement of railway cars. |
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Albert
Bierstadt died in New York City in 1902.
Although Albert Bierstadt’s reputation
during the 1890s suffered slightly from the
attraction for French art, Albert
Bierstadt’s impact upon the American
landscape tradition of the nineteenth
century remains strong. Albert Bierstadt’s
large-scale, panoramic landscapes, with
their dramatic, almost sublime, light
effects, coupled with the meticulous
rendering of details, reflect the influences
of both the contemporary landscape school of
Düsseldorf as well as the native Hudson
River School aesthetic. Albert Bierstadt’s
works can be found in major public and
private collections throughout North America
and Europe, including the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, the Wadsworth Atheneum, and
the National Gallery of Canada. |
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