Albert Bierstadt

Albert Bierstadt

American Painter, 1830 - 1902

Albert Bierstadt is considered one of the greatest American romantic landscape painters. Bierstadt lived in a time where the relationship between man and nature was being explored in art, philosophy, and writing. This paralleled the exploration of the natural world as Americans explored the western frontier and discovered the enormous natural beauty of their country. Americans saw themselves as living in a bucolic ideal and, paradoxically, also claimed as their right the conquest of the "wide open spaces."

While traveling with a surveying expedition in 1858, Bierstadt made on-the-spot sketches which he later developed into large panoramas of western mountains. The paintings were highly detailed landscapes painted in muted colors and suffused with golden light. Bierstadt's canvases were as monumental as their subject matter.

Bierstadt often brought the sky into active play as a source of illumination and an element of design. He painted varied skies that often dominated the composition of his paintings, including approaching storms, moonlit scenes, or billowy cloud banks. It is likely that newly developed photographic techniques influenced his perception of the grand western spaces.

During his lifetime, Bierstadt received as high as $35,000 for his art, but toward the end of his life his reputation declined as public taste turned toward Impressionism. Today, Bierstadt's art is receiving new appreciation due to a revival of interest in romanticism.

Find beautiful framed art prints by Albert Bierstadt.

See Albert Bierstadt art on canvas.