Likely the most famous and financially successful late 19th-century painter of the American western landscape, Albert Bierstadt created grandiose, dramatic scenes of the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevadas that lured many people to visit those sites. He was also one of the first artists to use a camera to record landscape views.
Background
Bierstadt was born on January 7, 1830, in Solingen, near Dusseldorf, Germany, and sailed as a baby with his family who settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Unlike many of his successful peers, as a child, he showed only a casual interest and talent for art, and he received little encouragement from his family. In New Bedford, he acquired a few collectors for his early work including Mrs. Hathaway from a local shipping family. At a New Bedford Concert Hall, he used floral images of George Harvey for a scenery picture show with a Drummond Light, a lantern that allowed one picture to fade into another.
Education
In 1853, Albert Bierstadt returned to Dusseldorf where he studied at the Royal Academy with landscape painters Andreas Aschenbach and Karl Friedman Lessing. Some of his fellow students were Emmanuel Leutze, Sanford Gifford and Worthington Whittredge; they all learned an eye for attention to detail, respect for composition and became skilled at drawing. During this period, he traveled extensively in Europe, especially Italy with companions Whittredge and Gifford. He completed many picturesque Old World scenes in the style that later became his trademark.
In 1857, Albert Bierstadt returned to the United States and painted the “White Mountains of New Hampshire”, and in 1858 exhibited for the first time at the National Academy of Design in New York. His fourteen entries included “Lake Lucerne”, which was one of the biggest artworks in the exhibition. That same year, representatives of the Boston Atheneum purchased his painting, “The Portico of Octavia, Rome”, for $400.00; this was the first museum purchase acquisition of his work.
In January 1859, he heard a lecture in New Bedford on the American West by Bayard Taylor, famous traveler and lecturer. This exposure stirred an interest that played a large part in his future career. Meanwhile, he had settled into New York City where he lived and occupied a studio in the Tenth Street Building, which had 25 studio spaces and became well known for its prestigious occupants. He remained in this studio space until 1881, when he moved to 1271 Broadway to the Rensselaier Building.
A year later he found the subject matter that set the course of his career. He joined a western military expedition led by Colonel Frederick W. Lander to survey wagon routes in the Rocky Mountains and Wyoming. From sketches and artifacts such as buffalo hides and Native American items, he painted studio western scenes including landscapes, Native Americans, and wildlife in the traditional style he had learned in Europe. His first large western painting of 1860 had several titles: “The Base of the Rocky Mountains”, “Laramie Peak”, or “The Rocky Mountains.” The 1860 painting did not generate much reaction when it was exhibited at the National Academy nor did it find a buyer, but it did establish “its creator, however, as the artistic spokesman of the American Far West.” Subsequently, the painting was lost, having been loaned to a Buffalo New York high school in 1922.
In 1861 Bierstadt and his friend from Dusseldorf, Emanuel Leutze, received permission to visit army camps around Washington to paint Civil War scenes. From this experience and an 1863 visit to Fort Sumter, Bierstadt painted war themed canvases including “The Bombardment of Fort Sumter.” During this period, he also visited the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and made plans for a second visit to the American West, which involved securing welcomes at US army forts by getting travel permission from Charles Sumner, Secretary of War.
This second trip West included his friend, Fitz Hugh Ludlow. Ludlow was the son of a Presbyterian absolutionist minister of Poughkeepsie, New York, and was the writer of a controversial but best-selling book, “The Hasheesn Eater.” The publication praised hashish and described Ludlow’s positive experiences in being one of the first westerners to use the drug, which had been used in India and other countries for over a thousand years, first introduced in America in 1839. As a result of notoriety for the book, by the mid-1850s, he was highly prominent in New York society.
In 1863, with the understanding that Ludlow would take copious notes for a book to be published and possibly with the idea that they would come to some conclusion about Rosalie, Ludlow, and Bierstadt set off from New York in April 1863 from Atchison, Kansas. There they acquired supplies and in late May the men left on the Overland Trail through Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and into California by July 17. Painters Virgil Williams and Enoch Wood Perry joined them in San Francisco for a painting excursion to Yosemite during the month of August. They camped in a meadow on the Merced River and near the base of Yosemite Falls, and were back in San Francisco by mid-September. Then they journeyed to Oregon, leaving from Portland to catch a steamer from San Francisco that returned them to New York on December 17, 1863. During this time, Bierstadt’s name came up for draft into Civil War service, but he paid an exemption of $300.
Three years later, the Ludlows were divorced, and Rosalie Ludlow married Albert Bierstadt. From the time of his trip with Bierstadt, Fitz Hugh Ludlow had deteriorated mentally and physically. Allegedly he was abusive to Rosalie, indulged in excessive alcohol and hashish, and decamped to Saint Joseph, Missouri with another woman. He died in Switzerland in June 1870, having married a widow from Maine. For Bierstadt, the “Yosemite” paintings were such a sensation that he became immediately famous. In 1871, he returned to California and stayed for three years, exhibiting in local galleries and with the San Francisco Art Association. He returned again in 1893 after the death of his wife.
In 1865, he built a thirty-five room home of granite and wood on the Hudson River near New York City. He named the place “Malkasten”, which was German for “paint box” and referred to the name of an artists’ gathering and exhibition place in Dusseldorf during his student days. However, he seldom worked from his home, preferring his New York City studio. On November 10, 1882, “Malkasten” with many of his paintings was destroyed by fire.
In the 1860s and 70s, he earned the highest sales prices ever achieved by an American painter, and the U.S. Congress allotted $20,000 for one of his paintings. In 1867, he took a grand tour of Europe and England including a special audience with Queen Victoria. His painting, “Among the Sierra Mountains, California”, was exhibited at the Royal Academy of London with mixed reactions. Some thought it overtaxed the viewers’ minds and imaginations. He received the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by Napoleon III and the Order of the Stanislaus from the Czar of the Russians.
Returning to America, the Bierstadt’s visited his photographer brother, Charles, and his sister, Esther, in Niagara Falls, and also went to New Hampshire for more painting in the White Mountains. In 1871, the Bierstadt went to California, residing for two and a half years. He stayed primarily in San Francisco, and was much sought after socially. There, he painted in the Sierra Nevadas, Lake Tahoe, and Yosemite.
However, toward the end of the century, beginning in the 1870s, his career had major setbacks with the increasing influence of the Barbizon and Impressionist styles from Europe. Bierstadt’s painting style was increasingly considered old fashioned and foolishly romantic. However, he was asked to contribute a painting to the newly established Pennsylvania Academy, and sent Mount Adams, Rocky Mountains. He received a commission for paintings for the US Capitol Building and contributed the historical scenes, “Landing in Monterey” and “Discovery of the Hudson.” He also entered work in the Philadelphia Exposition of 1875, but the public’s reaction was less than enthusiastic.
To secure a stable income and due to a lack of interest in living there, the Bierstadts rented Malkasten, their home on the Hudson River. He took a studio and housing space in the Rensselaer Building at 1271 Broadway, and there held exhibitions for sales of his paintings in circumstances described as elegant and commodious. The couple traveled to Canada and Colorado. Although, Rosalie had tuberculosis, so she spent much time in Nassau, where the climate was better for her health. He created paintings there, and in 1875, returned to California. From 1878 to 1879, the Bierstadts traveled in Europe, then Rosalie was in the Bahamas for eight months while he again traveled West including to Yellowstone and Salt Lake City. For the next few years they both traveled together sometimes, including a return to Europe, but she increasingly spent time in Nassau, and he took several more trips including to Canada, Alaska, and Europe.
He was very disappointed when his entry, “The Last of the Buffalo”, (now at the Corcoran Gallery) was rejected for the Paris Exposition of 1889. However, this canvas stimulated an official census of the buffalo population, which was estimated at 60 million during the time Columbus discovered America, which decreased to about 500 when Bierstadt created his painting. Resulting from the census, a plan of government protection was initiated.
He lived in New York at 322 Fifth Avenue and kept a fairly regular schedule of painting, although the popularity of his work declined. He traveled to Europe several times, and was entertained by Queen Victoria on the Isle of Wight. Although his new wife was wealthy, they kept their finances separate, and in 1895, he declared bankruptcy. Seven years later, on February 18, 1902, he died in New York City, having just returned from a walk. His body is buried beside his parents in the Rural Cemetery of New Bedford, Massachusetts.
For several decades after his death, he was largely forgotten in the public mind. But he has been rediscovered in the late 20th century and stirred interest in many collectors, especially his paintings of the American West.
Achievements
Albert Bierstadt was best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American W. Bierstadt became internationally renowned for his beautiful and enormous paintings of the newly accessible American west, and his works found their way into public and private collections at staggeringly high prices for his time.
Mariposa Indian Encampment, Yosemite Valley, California
The Last of the Buffalo
Bears in the Wilderness
Moat Mountain Intervale, New Hampshire
Ferns and Rocks on an Embankment
Rocca de Secca
Sea Cove
A River Estuary
Landscape With Deer
In the Mountains
Sunset in the Yosemite Valley
Storm in the Mountains
View of Donner Lake, California
Landscape, Rockland County, California
Sundown at Yosemite
Staubbach Falls, Near Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland
Falls of Niagara from Below
The Matterhorn
The Emerald Pool
Niagara Falls
Sierra Nevada
Wind River, Wyoming
A Rocky Mountain Sheep, Ovis, Montana
Wreck of the 'Ancon' in Loring Bay, Alaska
Fishing from a Canoe
After The Shower
Merced River, Yosemite Valley
The Golden Gate
The Marina Piccola, Capri
Kern's River Valley, California
Autumn in the Conway Meadows Looking towards Mount Washington, New Hampshire
Sunset, Deer, and River
The Falls
Mormon Boy, Salt Lake City
Lake Tahoe, Spearing Fish by Torchlight
The Columbia River, Oregon
A View in the Bahamas
Sunset on the Coast
Bahamian View
Rocky Mountains
Westphalia
Indian Encampment, Late Afternoon
Rocky Mountain Sheep
The Domes of the Yosemite
Liberty Cam, Yosemite
Mount Hood, Oregon
Cathedral Rock, Yosemite Valley, California
Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast
New England Landscape
Cascading Falls at Sunset
Yosemite Valley, Yellowstone Park
Autumn in America, Oneida County, New York
In the Foothills
Seal Rock
Gosnold at Cuttyhunk
Landscape with Cattle
Wind River Country
The Oregon Trail
The Plains Near Fort Laramie
Nevada Falls
The Fishing Fleet
Seal Rocks, Pacific Ocean, California
Cho-looke, the Yosemite Fall
The Old Mill
The Sacramento River Valley
Day's Beginning
The Sierras near Lake Tahoe
Mount Washington
Western Landscape
The Arch of Octavius
Study for Gosnold at Cuttyhunk
Passing Storm over the Sierra Nevada
Mountain Scene
Thunderstorm in the Rocky Mountains
The Great Trees, Mariposa Grove, California
Tyrolean Landscape
On the Sweetwater Near the Devil's Gate, Nebraska
Portrait of a Horse
View in Yosemite Valley
Yellowstone Falls
Yosemite Valley Twin Peaks
The Shore of the Turquoise Sea
Yosemite
Nassau Harbor
Seal Rock, California
Seal Rocks (San Francisco)
Giant Redwood Trees of California
Landscape, New Hampshire
The Buffalo Trail
Kings River Canyon, California
Sunrise on the Matterhorn
Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite
On the Plains
Estes Park, Colorado
Nevada Falls, Yosemite
Harbor Scene
Western Landscape
Landscape
Yosemite Valley Sunset
Mount Hood
Winter in Yosemite Valley
Scene in the Tyrol
Fishing Boats at Capri
Mountain Scene
Donner Lake from the Summit
Guerrilla Warfare. Picket Duty in Virginia
The Tahoe's Lake
Wind River Country
Grizzly Bears
The Wave
Approaching Thunderstorm on the Hudson River
Butterfly
Falls of Saint Anthony
Sunlight and Shadow
Campfire Site, Yosemite
Deer Grazing, Grand Tetons, Wyoming
Lake Louise
Pioneers of the Woods
View of the Hudson Looking Across the Tappan Zee Towards Hook Mountain
The Open Glen
Mount Hood, Oregon
Buffalo Trail the Impending Storm
Wind River Mountains Nebraska Territory
Chimney Rock
Bernese Alps, as Seen near Kusmach
Westphalian Landscape
Rocky Mountain Goats
The Landing of Columbus
The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak
Overlook Mountain from Olana
Bavarian Landscape
Sierra Nevada
El Capitan, Yosemite Valley
Approaching Storm
The Rocky Mountains, Landers Peak
Seals on the Rocks, Farallon Islands
View of Chimney Rock, Ogalillalh Sioux Village in Foreground
The Mountain Brook
Capri
Indians Travelling Near Fort Laramie
Sailboats on the Hudson at Irvington
Cathedral Rocks, A Yosemite View
A View from Sacramento
Bahama Cove
Storm Among the Alps
Yosemite Valley
Olevano
Beach Scene
The Morteratsch Glacier, Upper Engadine Valley, Pontresina
Western Kansas
Surveyors Wagon in the Rockies
Study of a Tree
Niagara
Street in Nassau
The Trapper's Camp
Fishing on the Northwest Coast
Moose Hunters Camp
Among the Bernese Alps
Autumn Woods
Newbraska Wasatch Mountains
Valley of the Yosemite
A Rustic Mill
Yosemite Valley, California
Deer in a Mountain Home
Coastal View, Newport
Autumn Landscape
Lake Lucerne, Switzerland
North Fork of the Platte Nebraska
The Ambush
The Wolf River, Kansas
Bay of Monterey
Deer in a Field
Canoes
Indian Camp
The Wetterhorn
Indian Encampment, Shoshone Village
Evening on the Prarie
Scene in the Sierra Nevada
Nebraska, On the Plain
Mountain Lake
Landscape Study Owens Valley, California
Study for Yosemite Valley, Glacier Point Trail
Mono Lake, Sierra Nevada, California
Looking Down Yosemite Valley, California
White Mountains, New Hampshire
Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie
California Spring
Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California
Mountain Resort
Indian Summer Hudson River
Ships in Moonlight
South and North Moat Mountains
An Indian Encampment
Lower Yellowstone Falls
Butterfly (second version)
The Falls of St. Anthony
Sunlight and Shadow Study
Views
Albert Bierstadt adhered to the artistic traditions of Romanticism.
Membership
Albert Bierstadt became a member of the National Academy of Design in New York in 1860. He was also a part of a group of artists known as the Hudson River School.
Interests
preserving of the national lands of the USA
Connections
Albert's friend Ludlow was married to Rosalie Osborne of wealthy family of Waterville, New York. It has been suggested that Rosalie and Bierstadt were showing interest in each other at the time of the 1863 western trip of the two men. Bierstadt would subsequently marry Ludlow’s wife, Rosalie Osborne, in circumstances that ‘titilated’ New York society.
On March 1, 1893, Rosalie Bierstadt died at the age of fifty-two. Although she had been ill for the last years of their marriage, she had reportedly been a much-loved companion of her husband. A year later, Albert married Mary Hicks Stewart, the widow of David Stewart, a Boston banker. Reportedly, this marriage was happy, and for a wedding gift, Albert gifted her his historical painting, “Landing of Columbus”, which after his death, she gave to the Museum of Natural History in Washington DC.
