Albert Bierstadt
(1830-1902)

Albert Bierstadt was one of the most important landscape painters of the American West, in particular the Rocky Mountains. He studied in Dusseldorf and Rome from 1853-57 although he had grown up in New Bedford, Massachusetts. In 1859, Bierstadt headed out West for the first time with Col. F.W. Landers, crossing the Plains and into the Rocky Mountains. Bierstadt settled in NYC later that year and created paintings from his oils studies and photos of mountain scenery, camp life, and the Sioux and Shoshone Indians.

Bierstadt’s second trip out West in 1863 really catapulted his artistic career. He traveled with writer Frtizhugh Ludlow and upon his return Bierstadt produced and exhibited the huge romantic canvases that brought him critical acclaim. During this time he held a studio in NYC and built a 35-room castle at Irvington-on-the-Hudson. Bierstadt traveled West again and across Europe in 1878. Unfortunately, his castle burned in 1882 and his paintings became increasingly out of style. Bierstadt was rejected from the Paris Exposition in 1889 and the Colombian Exposition in 1893. He died nearly bankrupt and his status was not restore until the 1970s.