Albert Bierstadt

American painter

• Born: January 7, 1830
• Birthplace: Solingen, Westphalia (now in Germany)
• Died: February 18, 1902
• Place of death: New York, New York

Using an exaggerated, romantic style, Bierstadt painted giant landscapes of spectacular Western vistas that helped to shape the myth of the American West, establish the Rocky Mountain school of art, and interest easterners in preservation of Western scenic areas as national parks.

Early Life

Albert Bierstadt (BIHR-staht) was born in 1830 at Solingen, Germany, near the city of Düsseldorf, which was a mecca for émigré American artists. He migrated to the United States with his parents at the age of two and was reared amid the maritime atmosphere in the whaling town of New Bedford, Massachusetts. He exhibited his first painting in Boston at the age of twenty-one but returned to Europe for further training at Düsseldorf and in Rome. On the Continent, he was attracted to pastoral scenes, sketching castles along the Rhine and taking hiking expeditions among the Alps. Bierstadt returned to the United States in 1857 and painted in New England. The following year the bearded, sharp-featured artist seized the opportunity to see the trans-Mississippi regions for the first time, when he joined Colonel Frederick W. Lander on a survey party that set out for the West from St. Louis. This expedition literally opened new vistas for Bierstadt and shaped the rest of his artistic career, establishing his place in the history of both the American West and American art.

The explorer, scientist, and artist traveled hand in hand and contributed jointly to the opening of the trans-Mississippi West and in the shaping of its image in the national consciousness. Prior to the exploration of the region, most American painters had slavishly imitated the themes and styles of their European counterparts and mentors. It was almost inevitable, however, that the rising tide of nationalism would find artistic expression, as the United States sought to establish its own and unique cultural identity. Two traditions, the scientific and the artistic, were eventually conjoined in that search.

The artistic tradition established its roots in the eastern part of the country during the 1820’s and 1830’s as several artists, including Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand, honed the vision and produced the work that established the Hudson River school. They grappled with the balance between civilization and wilderness and focused upon the vistas of the Hudson River, the White Mountains, Niagara Falls, and other northeastern features as expressions of truth, beauty, and eternal laws and values. Their appreciation of and emphasis upon landscape and nature would shape the perceptions of later artists, including Bierstadt, who spent time at the emerging artists’ colony at North Conway, New Hampshire, on the Saco River in the White Mountain region.

In the meantime, following the historic expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, explorers and scientists were beginning to penetrate the great unknown of the trans-Mississippi West. Their expeditions often enlisted artists who traveled along and sketched the plants, animals, people, and lands they encountered both for artistic purposes and to document visually the information acquired. They traveled and worked under primitive conditions foreign to the overwhelming majority of their artistic colleagues past and present, and they were virtually to a man overwhelmed and deeply impressed by what they saw and recorded.

First were two Philadelphians, Samuel Seymour and Titian Ramsay Peale, who accompanied the Stephen Long expedition to the Rockies in 1820. They were soon followed by George Catlin, who made several trips up the Missouri River during the 1830’s and produced pictorial records of the Plains Indians prior to extensive contact with white civilization. Later came the Swiss artist Karl Bodmer, who produced extremely accurate depictions of the Indians and painted landscapes of the American interior as well. During the late 1830’s, Baltimore artist Alfred Jacob Miller traveled the Oregon Trail and depicted the world of the mountain man, and within a few more years John James Audubon was at work painting the animals along the Missouri River. These and other artists created the scientific-artistic tradition which was part of Albert Bierstadt’s milieu.

Life’s Work

After his return from Europe, Bierstadt learned of Colonel Frederick W. Lander’s proposed expedition to prepare a survey for a railroad route from the Mississippi River, across the north fork of the Platte, through Nebraska Territory, across South Pass, and connecting with San Francisco and Puget Sound. Bierstadt and photographer F. S. Frost joined the party and in 1858-1859 journeyed as far as the Wasatch range on the western slope of the Rockies. They then returned on their own, traveling through the Wind River range and the land of the Shoshone, producing sketches and photographic images of the scenery and people they encountered. Bierstadt was thus the first artist to utilize photography to supplement his own sketches and watercolors while on a journey of Western exploration. Bierstadt and Frost paid their own way and none of their work from this expedition survives, but the artist had been captivated by what he had seen.

Upon returning to the East, Bierstadt relocated his studio from New Bedford to were chosen, where in 1860 the first of his paintings went on public display. Among them was The Base of the Rocky Mountains, Laramie Peak that measured some four and a half by nine feet. This canvas was prototypical of the Bierstadt style, which the public enthusiastically applauded. It was characterized by a seeming realism, which in fact presented a romanticized and even falsified depiction of a Western scene on a grandiose scale. It reflected both the romanticization of nature and the cultural nationalism that were to be representative of the Rocky Mountain school.

Bierstadt was soon getting higher prices in Europe for his paintings than any other American artist had ever received, and with his new wealth he built a large house on the Hudson River at Irvington and a second studio in San Francisco, which served as a base for further excursions into the Western regions. He traveled through the Colorado Rockies, the Great Salt Lake region, the Pacific Northwest, and in 1863 into California’s Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy valleys, sketching the vistas that became the subjects for some of his most commercially successful paintings. A series of paintings of grandiose dimension, produced during the mid-1860’s, sold for the highest sums ever earned by an American artist. Featuring towering mountains, shimmering waters, and dark forests, these canvases carried the romantic concepts of nature to their apex of grandeur. While some critics scoffed, the public loved the huge size and detail of the Bierstadt canvases.

The giant paintings were done in Bierstadt’s studio, based on his field sketches, photographs, stereoscopic views, and watercolors. The artist rearranged the features, gave names to nonexistent locales, and generally falsified his portrayals, even as the public praised his “realism.” It is not accidental that the growing interest of the American people in the spectacular land features of the West and their preservation coincided chronologically with the popularity of Bierstadt and Thomas Moran, whose paintings of Yellowstone would contribute to the creation of the national park in 1872.

Ironically, at the height of Bierstadt’s popularity two trends were developing that would relegate his large canvases to relative obscurity and general critical disdain by the turn of the century. First, with the rise of the Impressionist style in Europe, realistic painters of the Romantic school fell out of fashion. Second, those who were interested in literal depictions of the West could now examine the striking photographs of William Henry Jackson and others who were elevating photography to the status of an art form.

Bierstadt continued to paint, and his elevated reputation secured large commissions, as during the late 1870’s, when he received fifteen thousand dollars from the earl of Dunraven to paint a large landscape of Estes Park, Colorado, and Long’s Peak. Bierstadt’s sales and commissions steadily diminished, however, even as his critical reputation continued to decline. By the time he died in February, 1902, fashion and popularity had passed him by.

Significance

Although not considered a great artist by most critics, Albert Bierstadt remains a major figure in the history of both American art and the trans-Mississippi West. A founder of the Rocky Mountain school, Bierstadt’s giant landscapes of the American West—its mountains, forests, waterfalls, and spectacular landforms—brought romantic appreciation of nature to a new artistic peak in nineteenth century America. Although he took numerous liberties with fact in his larger works, the general public regarded Bierstadt’s paintings as quite realistic, and he thus helped to generate the mythic perception of the American West and its landscapes that contributed to the movement for preservation of spectacular landforms in national parks. Ironically, although not as well known as his large canvases, Bierstadt’s smaller pieces and sketches, done during or immediately following journeys in the field, have retained a much higher critical standing. Bierstadt’s works are found in major collections across the United States and have enjoyed constant popularity among those interested in the West and its history.

Bibliography

Anderson, Nancy K., and Linda S. Ferber. Albert Bierstadt: Art and Enterprise. New York: Hidden Hills Press, 1990. This catalog accompanied an exhibit of Bierstadt’s work and includes essays about his life and art. Also contains reproductions of some of the 79 paintings, prints, and drawings on display.

Hassrick, Peter. The Way West: Art of Frontier America. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1977. A profusely illustrated introduction to the work of major artists of the nineteenth century West, including Bierstadt.

Hendricks, Gordon. Albert Bierstadt: Painter of the American West. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1974. The standard biography. Makes extensive use of Bierstadt’s letters. Includes 63 color and365 black-and-white illustrations, a catalog of Bierstadt’s paintings, and a bibliography.

Hine, Robert V. The American West: An Interpretive History. Boston: Little, Brown, 1973. An excellent survey of Western history, with a first-rate chapter, “The Image of the West in Art.”

Huth, Hans. Nature and the American: Three Centuries of Changing Attitudes. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957. Evaluates the developments and factors that shaped the conservation movement in the United States. The contributions of artists, including Bierstadt, are an important part of the story.

Kornhauser, Elizabeth Mankin, Amy Ellis, and Maureen Miesmer. Hudson River School: Masterworks from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2003. A catalog accompanying an exhibit of paintings by Bierstadt and other Hudson River school artists. A good source for understanding the school’s influence on Bierstadt.

McCracken, Harold. Portrait of the Old West. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1952. A scholarly account with material on Bierstadt’s early career.

Nash, Roderick. Wilderness and the American Mind. 4th ed. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001. While Bierstadt is mentioned only in passing, this is the standard work on the evolution of American attitudes toward wilderness.

Runte, Alfred. National Parks: The American Experience. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1979. As part of his discussion of cultural nationalism, Runte describes Bierstadt as a significant influence in the establishment of national parks.