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 :. | The Kern River Valley, a montane canyon in the Sierra Nevada, California | A Rustic Mill (Farm | In the Sierras | In the Forest | View of the Parliament Buildings from the Grounds of Rideau Halls |
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Wouterus Verschuur
(11 June 1812 - 4 July 1874) was a Dutch painter of animal subjects - mainly horses - and of landscapes. He is one of the later representatives of Romanticism in Dutch art. Born to an Amsterdam jeweller, Verschuur received his training from the landscape and cattle painters Pieter Gerardus van Os and Cornelis Steffelaar. As part of this education Verschuur had to copy works by the 17th century painter Philips Wouwerman, like Wouwerman Verschuures subjects consist mostly of stable scenes, landscapes with horses and coastal landscapes. Showing talent from an early age, at 15 Verschuur had a painting exhibited at the eExhibition of Living Masterse at Amsterdam in 1828. In 1832 and 1833 he won the gold medal at the annual exhibition at Felix Meritis. In 1833 he was appointed a member of the Royal Academy in Amsterdam. In 1839 he joined the artistse society, Arti et Amicitiae. His reputation was also considerable abroad. He was often featured in the annual exhibitions which travelled the large European cities at that time. In 1855 Napoleon III purchased one of his paintings at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. The popularity of his paintings provided him with sufficient funds to travel widely. He made frequent trips to Gelderland and Brabant and abroad to Switzerland and Germany. In 1874, on one of his trips to Gelderland, he died on July 4 in the town of Vorden. He left behind an oevre of about 400 paintings and over 2000 drawings. Amongst his students were his son, Wouterus Verschuur Jr. and Anton Mauve.
Pine, Robert Edge
American, 1720-88 English painter, active also in America. His father, John Pine (1691-1756), was a well-known engraver and printseller of whom William Hogarth painted a portrait (c. 1755; Fredericton, NB, Beaverbrook A.G.). Robert Edge Pine was initially considered to have the potential to rival Joshua Reynolds as a portrait painter, a promise derived from such works as the full-length portrait of George II (1759; Audley End, Essex), painted without a sitting being granted him by the King. In 1760 he won a premium at the Society of Arts, London, for a history painting, the Surrender of Calais to Edward III, also known as the Burghers of Calais (untraced), which was engraved in 1762 by Fran?ois Germain Aliamet (1734-88), and another in 1763 for Canute the Great Reproving his Courtiers for their Impious Flattery (untraced), also engraved by Aliamet. Pine was not invited to become a founder-member of the Royal Academy in 1768, probably because of his radical politics; that year he painted a portrait of the political agitator John Wilkes (London, Westminster Hall). In 1772 he left the Society of Arts following a quarrel over its choice of directors; he moved to Bath, where he joined his brother, Simon Pine (d Aug 1772), a painter of miniatures. Their sister was married to the landscape painter Alexander Cozens. While at Bath Pine painted his most ambitious family group,
Paolo Veneziano
Italian Byzantine Style Painter, active 1333-ca.1360