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 :. | In_the_Foothills | Study_for_Yosemite_Valle | North Fork of the Platte Nebraska | the conflagration | Les Montagnes Rocheuses,Lander's Peak |
Related Artists:
Dirk van der Aa
Dirk van der Aa , 1731 -- February 23, 1809. He was born in The Hague, and first apprenticed to Johann Heinrich Keller, and then to Gerrit Mes with whom he would later start a workshop; they specialized in grisaille decorative paintings. He counted Evert Morel, Cornelis Kuipers, Johan Christiaan Roedig and Andries van der Aa amongst his students. He died in his home city of The Hague.
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
(May 11, 1827 - October 12, 1875) was a French sculptor and painter. Born in Valenciennes, Nord, son of a mason, his early studies were under François Rude. Carpeaux entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1844 and won the Prix de Rome in 1854, and moving to Rome to find inspiration, he there studied the works of Michelangelo, Donatello and Verrocchio. Staying in Rome from 1854 to 1861, he obtained a taste for movement and spontaneity, which he joined with the great principles of baroque art. Carpeaux sought real life subjects in the streets and broke with the classical tradition. While a student in Rome, Carpeaux submitted a plaster version of Pe - heur napolitain e la coquille, the Neapolitan Fisherboy, to the French Academy. He carved the marble version several years later, showing it in the Salon exhibition of 1863. It was purchased for Napoleon III's empress, Eugenie. The statue of the young smiling boy was very popular, and Carpeaux created a number of reproductions and variations in marble and bronze. There is a copy, for instance, in the Samuel H. Kress Collection in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.. Some years later, he carved the Girl with a Shell, a very similar study. In 1861 he made a bust of Princess Mathilde, and this later brought him several commissions from Napoleon III.
Salomon Koninck
Dutch Baroque Era Painter, 1609-1656,was a Dutch painter of genre scenes and portraits and engraver. Koninck was the son of a goldsmith, originally from Antwerp, and was a nephew of Philips de Koninck. Salomon became a pupil of Pieter Lastman, David Colijns, Francois Venants and Claes Corneliszoon Moeyaert. From 1630 he was a member of the Sint Lucasgilde. He moved in the circles of Rembrandt and the academy of Hendrick van Uylenburgh, making many copies of Rembrandt's compositions. His paintings have a warm colour palette and include "the philosopher".