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 :. | Rocca de Secca | Wooded Hillside | Westfallische Landschaft | Alaskan Coastal Range | San Francisco Bay |
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Hendrick van Somer
Hendrick van Someren, or Somer (1615, Amsterdam - 1685, Amsterdam), was a Dutch Golden Age painter. According to Houbraken he was the son of the "van Zomeren" who took in the young Adriaen Brouwer after he fled Frans Hals' workshop to try his luck in Amsterdam. Houbraken claimed Henrik van Someren was a good painter of historical allegories, landscapes, and flower still lifes. According to the RKD no works survive in the styles Houbraken mentioned, only "hermits" in the style of Ribera. He was the son of the painter Barend van Someren and the grandson of Aert Mijtens. He was the pupil of Jusepe de Ribera and at least one of his works had a forged signature of Ribera.He is possibly the same painter sometimes referred to as Enrico Fiammingo.
Alexandre Roubtzoff
Russian, 1884-1949
Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson
1767-1824 French Anne Louis Girodet Trioson Galleries Girodet was born at Montargis. He lost his parents in early youth and the care of his inheritance and education fell to his guardian, M. Trioson, "medecin-de-mesdames," by whom he was in later life adopted and whose surname he took in 1812. He started in school by studying architecture and pursuing a military career. He later changed to the study of painting under a painter named Luquin, before entering the school of David. From 1789 to 1793 he lived in Italy where, at the age of twenty-two, he successfully competed for the Prix de Rome thus making a name for himself for his painting of the Story of Joseph and his Brethren. At Rome he painted his Hippocrate refusant les presents d'Artaxerxes and Endymion-dormant (presently held in the Louvre), work which was praised at the Salon of 1793.