Albert Bierstadt - Artist of the American West

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

USA is a country not too rich in talented artists, especially painters of the romantic school. Albert Bierstadt became a real singer of the mountains and prairies, and he painted his paintings based on the unique experience gained in travels and expeditions.

Biography

Birstadt Albert was born on January 7, 1830 in Germany, in the city of Solingen. When the boy was only two years old, the family moved to New Bradford, Massachusetts. At the age of 23, the young man goes to his homeland, to Germany, to master the craft of a painter. There he graduated from the art academy, traveled through the Alps and the Rhine, visited Italy, and at the age of 27 returned to America. Quite quickly, Albert Bierstadt gained fame as the most popular painter in the city. In 1858 he takes part in the exhibition of the design academy. For this event, the artist paints 15 paintings. After the exhibition, his fame thundered throughout the country.

Birstadt makes several trips around America, in which he makesmany sketches. Later they formed the basis of his paintings. An exhibition of new works took place in 1860, and after it the artist gained worldwide fame. He makes many trips to the US and Europe, and in the 60s he marries Rosalia Ludlow. In 1875, Albert Bierstadt works on the murals of the Capitol.

When the artist was 52, his family suffered a misfortune: a fire destroyed the beautiful mansion in which they lived. A year later, his beloved wife died. To improve his financial situation, Bierstadt began to make copies of his old paintings, which were popular. The replicas were made hastily and were significantly inferior to the originals, which pretty much spoiled the artist's reputation. He died in 1902 at the age of 72.

Painter of the Romantic era

In the 19th century, which was the heyday of Bierstadt's work, the formation of the landscape as an independent genre of painting took place. Of course, artists have depicted nature in paintings before, but it served more as a background than an independent character. The sentimentalists, who portrayed touching rural pastorals, were replaced by the romantic school, of which Albert Bierstadt was a representative. Here nature appears in all its glory. The favorite theme of romantics is the sea and mountains. It is difficult to find the sea on the canvases of Bierstadt, but there are plenty of mountains! The artist widely uses various methods of spectacular lighting, which is also characteristic of romantics.

Romantic landscapes inspire and humanizenature. She speaks to the viewer as if there were a portrait in the picture. Nature serves as a conductor of the artist's feelings and emotions, he admires and admires her. In the paintings of romantics, nature is beautiful and free, it does not depend on human arbitrariness and does not obey it.

Albert Bierstadt: paintings by the artist

The painter became famous not only for depicting majestic landscapes, but also for his works on the theme of the life of American Indians, as well as everyday and genre paintings. Bierstadt's paintings are extremely detailed, some can even be mistaken for photographs - for example, "In the Sierra Nevada", "View of the Yosemite Valley". The artist masterfully owns technique. His works have an impeccable composition and harmonious coloring.

On his canvases, Bierstadt depicted both serene idyllic views ("Deer by the Lake", "Sierra Nevada", "Yosemite Valley"), and the raging elements - a motif so beloved by romantics ("Phalaron Islands", "Storm in the Rocky Mountains).

The most famous of his paintings are "The Discovery of the Hudson River", "The Last of Buffalo", "Rocky Mountains", "Settlement of the Sioux". Already during his lifetime, the artist gained great fame and recognition, which is not so common in this profession. To date, Albert Bierstadt is considered one of the best American landscape painters.