Albert Bierstadt

1830-1902

American Artist

Bierstadt was born in Solingen, Prussia, but he spent his early years in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where his parents settled two years after his birth. Primarily self-taught, Albert Bierstadt began his professional career in 1850 when he advertised his services as a drawing instructor. After a period of time spent in Europe he returned to the USA and then he journeyed west for the first time in 1858. Though not the first artist to see or even paint the Rockies, Bierstadt was the first who brought with him superior technical skills and considerable experience painting European alpine peaks. For Americans eager to finally see the mountains a generation of travelers had described as "America's alps," Bierstadt's credentials were near perfect. By late September 1858 Bierstadt had returned to New Bedford laden with field sketches, stereo photographs, and Indian artifacts. Within three months he had moved to New York, established himself in the Tenth Street Studio Building, and begun to exhibit the western paintings that would soon make his reputation. Though Bierstadt continued to maintain his New York studio, he traveled widely in the West, Canada and eventually to the tropics.