Albert+Bierstadt

**January 7, 1830 – Februray 18, 1902** **American Painter born in Germany**


 * Albert Bierstadt was the first technically mature artist to travel and portray the Western landscapes in America. His artworks created a new language rooted in strong nationalistic and religious symbolism, which he created to convey messages within his works.
 * Not able to afford a formal education, while in Germany he befriended two American artists who helped him mature as a painter. After receiving a brief education from his contemporaries, Bierstadt traveled through Europe to further his education and perfect various artistic techniques.
 * Bierstadt traveled to America, where he accompanied a Survey Party on their travels west. During this period, he produced sketches and took stereoscopic photographs of native communities, settling families, and the Survey Party. This period inspired his first large-scale Western landscape painting.
 * The completion of his first Western painting stated his artistic claim to the American West. He began exposing the undisturbed natural world of the West, which served as an escape for many in the East whose lives were in turmoil due to the Civil War.
 * He became a member of the European and American high society, which marked his financial and professional success. He was able to travel more freely to Europe and throughout America. The transcontinental railroad brought many tourists to the pristine areas on which Bierstadt primarily focused, forcing him to document less accessible Western areas.
 * Although he found great success throughout his career, his later career brought him great disappointment. The evolving American public’s artistic taste and technique rendered his large-scale German inspired landscapes no longer representative of the contemporary art of America.

Oxford Art Online: Bierstadt, Albert [|http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T008819?q=Albert+Bierstadt&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit]

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