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 :. | Sunset on the Mountain | Fishing Boats at Capri | Indians in Council, California | Buffalo Country | Guerilla Warfare |
Related Artists:
Masek, Vitezlav Karel
Czech Painter, 1865-1927
John George Brown
1831-1913 John George Brown Galleries John George Brown (November 11, 1831 - February 8, 1913), American painter, was born in Durham, England, on 11 November 1831. He studied at Newcastle-on-Tyne, in the Edinburgh Academy, and after moving to New York City in 1853, he studied with Thomas Seir Cummings at the schools of the National Academy of Design, of which he became a member in 1863.New International Encyclopedia He was its vice-president, 1899-1904, and originated the idea of the removal of the Academy to a new site in 110th Street. In 1866 he became one of the charter members of the Water-Color Society, of which he was president from 1887 to 1904. He generally confined himself to representations of street child life, bootblacks, newsboys, etc.; his Passing Show (Paris, Salon, 1877) and Street Boys at Play (Paris Exhibition, 1900) are good examples of his popular talent. Brown's art is best characterized as British genre paintings adapted to American subjects. Essentially literary, it is executed with precise detail, but is poor in color, and more popular with the general public than with connoisseurs.
William Andrews Nesfield
British Painter, 1793-1881 was born in Lumley Park, County Durham. In 1808, after the death of William's mother, the family moved the few miles to Brancepeth where his father became rector of St Brandon's Church. His stepmother was Marianne Mills of Willington Hall, whose nephew was the noted architect Anthony Salvin. William's younger sister in fact married Salvin. Nesfield was educated at Durham School, then located on Palace Green, before entering the army. He fought under Wellington in Spain and at Waterloo and also served for two years in Canada. He retired in 1816 and took up a career as a painter of watercolours, particularly of waterfalls, earning the praise of John Ruskin in Modern Painters. While still exhibiting at the Old Water Colour Society, Nesfield began work as a professional landscape architect, with the encouragement of Salvin. From 1840 until his death he was responsible, either singly or with his sons Arthur Markham and William Eden for no fewer than 259 commissions in the British Isles.