The USA is a country not too rich in talented artists, especially - painters of a romantic school. Albert Bierstadt became a real singer of mountains and prairies, and he painted his paintings based on the unique experience gained during travels and expeditions.
Biography
Bierstadt Albert was born on January 7, 1830 in Germany, in the city of Solingen. When the boy was only two years old, the family moved to New Bradford in Massachusetts. At 23, the young man goes to his homeland, to Germany, to master the craft of the painter. There he graduates from an art academy, travels the Alps and the Rhine, visits Italy, and returns to America at age 27. Quite quickly, Albert Bierstadt gained fame as the most popular painter in the city. In 1858, he took part in the exhibition of the Academy of Design. For this event, the artist writes 15 paintings. After the exhibition, his fame thundered already throughout the country.
Bierstadt makes several trips around America, in which he makes many sketches. Later they formed the basis of his paintings. An exhibition of new works took place in 1860, and after it the artist gained world fame. He makes many trips to the USA and Europe, and in the 60s he marries Rosalia Ludlow. In 1875, Albert Bierstadt worked on the murals of the Capitol.
When the artist was 52, his family suffered misfortune: a fire destroyed the beautiful mansion in which they lived. A year later, the beloved wife died. To improve his financial situation, Bierstadt began to make copies of his old paintings, which were popular. Replicas were made in haste and significantly inferior to the originals, which prettyly spoiled the artist’s reputation. He died in 1902 at the age of 72 years.
Romantic painter
In the 19th century, during which Birstadt's work flourished, the landscape was becoming an independent painting genre. Of course, artists used to depict nature in paintings, but it served as a backdrop rather than an independent actor. The sentimentalists who portrayed touching rural pastorals were replaced by a romantic school, whose representative was Albert Bierstadt. Here nature appears in all its greatness. The favorite theme of romantics is the sea and mountains. It is difficult to find the sea on the canvases of Birstadt, but there are plenty of mountains! The artist makes extensive use of various techniques of spectacular lighting, which is also characteristic of romantics.
Romantic landscapes spiritualize and humanize nature. She talks to the viewer, as if there was a portrait in the picture. Nature serves as a vehicle for the feelings and emotions of the artist, he admires and admires her. In the paintings of romantics, nature is beautiful and free, it does not depend on human arbitrariness and does not obey it.
Albert Bierstadt: paintings of the artist
The painter became famous not only for depicting majestic landscapes, but also for works on the life of the American Indians, as well as for everyday and genre paintings. Birstadt’s paintings are extremely detailed, some can even be taken as photographs - for example, “In the Sierra Nevada Mountains”, “View of the Yosemite Valley”. The artist masterfully owns the technique. His works have an impeccable composition and harmonious color.
On his canvases, Birstadt depicted both serene idyllic views (Deers by the Lake, Sierra Nevada, Yosemite Valley) and the raging elements - the motif so beloved by romantics (Falaron Islands, Storm in the Rockies) .
His most famous paintings are The Discovery of the Hudson River, The Last of Buffalo, The Rocky Mountains, The Sioux Settlement. Already during his lifetime, the artist gained great fame and recognition that it is not so often in this profession. Today, Albert Bierstadt is considered one of the best American landscape painters.