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Albert Bierstadt (January_7, 1830-February_19,
1902) was a United States painter who followed the
westward expansion.  He is best known for his
large, detailed landscape paintings.

Albert Bierstadt was born in Solingen, Germany.
His family moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, in
1833. He studied painting with the members of the
Düsseldorf School in Düsseldorf, Germany from
1853 to 1857. He taught drawing and painting
briefly before devoting himself to painting.

Bierstadt was part of the Hudson River School, not
an institution but 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.

Bierstadt began making paintings in New England
and upstate New York.  In 1859, he traveled
westward in the company of a land surveyor 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.

He became the central figure of the Rocky Mountain
School of American painting.

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, a
charge that continues to be leveled by many of
today's art historians.

Nonetheless, his paintings remain popular.  He was
a prolific artist, having completed over 400 (not
sure about this???) paintings during his lifetime,
most of which have survived.  Many are scattered
through museums around the U.S.  Prints are
available commercially for many.  Original
paintings themselves do occasionally come up for
sale.

== Bibliography ==

A tremendous book on the subject is: Hendricks,
Gordon.  Albert Bierstadt, Painter of the American
West.  It contains a fair number of color
reproductions of his paintings, including all
major works, and black and white reproductions of
many of the remainder.  The book is now out of
print; used copies in good condition command
premium prices and some libraries have copies.