German-born American Hudson River School Painter, 1830-1902 Bierstadt was born in Solingen, Germany. His family moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1833. He studied painting with the members of the D??sseldorf School in D??sseldorf, Germany from 1853 to 1857. He taught drawing and painting briefly before devoting himself to painting. Bierstadt began making paintings in New England and upstate New York. In 1859, he traveled westward in the company of a Land Surveyor for the U.S. government, returning with sketches that would result in numerous finished paintings. In 1863 he returned west again, in the company of the author Fitz Hugh Ludlow, whose wife he would later marry. He continued to visit 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. The romanticism evident in his choices of subject and in his use of light was felt to be excessive by contemporary critics. 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 Nonetheless, his paintings remain popular. He was a prolific artist, having completed over 500 (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.  Related Paintings of Albert Bierstadt :. | Wreck of the Ancon in Loring Bay, Alaska | Nooning on the Platte | The Oregon Trail | Westfallische Landschaft | Rhone Valley |
Related Artists:
Hendrik Cornelisz. Vroom
painted Ausfahrt der Ostindiensegler in c. 1630-1640
Charles Codman
(circa 1800-1842) was a landscape painter of Portland, Maine. His art is featured at the Portland Museum of Art as mature, fine early American landscape painting. Codman was probably from Boston and was apprenticed to the ornamental painter, John Ritto Penniman. Codman began as a decorative painter and had no formal training but eventually produced mature works of romance and beauty. One of his more important commissions was to design and paint five fireboards (decorative panels placed over hearths during the summertime) in the landscape style, for the Portland mansion of shipbuilder James Deering. He also filled commissions for both portraiture and decorative arts.
Viktor Vasnetsov
Russian Painter , 1848-1926 Painter, designer and graphic artist. He played a leading role in the evolution of Russian art from 19th-century realism towards Art Nouveau with a national historical slant. The son of a priest, he studied at a theological seminary in Vyatka (1862-7); then, developing a passion for drawing, he entered the drawing school of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, St Petersburg, and studied under Ivan Kramskoy in 1867-8. He perfected his skills at the Academy of Arts, St Petersburg, in 1869-75 and joined the WANDERERS in 1878.