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 :. | Moat Mountain, Intervale, New Hampshire | Grandeur of the Rockies | The Rocky Mountains | Sunset in Californa Yosemite | Figures_in_a_Hudson_River_Landscape |
Related Artists:
John Durand
American. active1766-1782 A signed portrait (priv. col.) dated 1765 provides the first documentary information on him. He advertised in the New York Journal on 26 November 1767 that he had opened a drawing school, and again on 7 April 1768, announcing his availability as a history painter, though no examples of this activity survive. Like other painters in the colonies, he made his living from portrait painting. His most noted work, the Rapalije Children (1768; New York, NY Hist. Soc.), demonstrates the strong decorative sense, the delicate use of colour and the attempts at sophisticated value and texture application that characterize all his paintings. His skill as a draughtsman is evident in the carefully described details. Here, as in other works, he used a dark outline to define one plane from another, and he imparted a sense of elegance, particularly in the slightly turned heads and animated arms and hands.
BRUEGEL, Pieter the Elder
Flemish Northern Renaissance Painter, ca.1525-1569 (born c. 1525, probably Breda, duchy of Brabant ?? died Sept. 5/9, 1569, Brussels) Greatest Netherlandish painter of the 16th century. Not much is known of his early life, but in 1551 he set off for Italy, where he produced his earliest signed painting, Landscape with Christ and the Apostles at the Sea of Tiberias (c. 1553). Returning to Flanders in 1555, he achieved some fame with a series of satirical, moralizing prints in the style of Hiëronymus Bosch, commissioned by an Antwerp engraver. He is best known for his paintings of Netherlandish proverbs, seasonal landscapes, and realistic views of peasant life and folklore, but he also took a novel approach to religious subject matter, portraying biblical events in panoramic scenes, often viewed from above. He had many important patrons; most of his paintings were commissioned by collectors. In addition to many drawings and engravings, about 40 authenticated paintings from his enormous output have survived. His sons, Peter Brueghel the Younger and Jan, the Elder Brueghel (both of whom restored to the name the h their father had abandoned), and later imitators carried his style into the 18th century.
anna dorothea therbusch
1721-82 German painter of Polish descent. She was taught by her father, the portrait painter Georg Lisiewski (1674-1751), and received further training from Antoine Pesne in Paris. She worked for Charles-Eugene, Count of W?rttemberg, in Stuttgart from 1761 to 1762, and for Charles Theodore Wittelsbach, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, in Mannheim from 1763 to 1764. In 1765 she returned, via Stuttgart and Hohenzollern-Hechingen, to Paris, where in 1767 she became a member of the Academie Royale. She met Denis Diderot and Philipp Hackert, both of whom she painted, and Charles-Nicolas Cochin , but, despite consistent support from Prince Galitsyn, she was unable to establish herself in Paris. In 1769 she returned to Berlin where she received commissions for mythological paintings (e.g. Diana and her Nymphs, 1771; Potsdam, Neues Pal.) from Frederick II, King of Prussia. She painted portraits of members of the Prussian court, and the Berlin bourgeoisie, and in 1773 was commissioned by Catherine II, Empress of Russia, to paint a portrait of the Prussian royal family.