Albert Bierstadt was born in Solingen, Germany in 1830.  He was a landscape painter who painted so-called “great pictures” in the Hudson River style in the mid-1800s. Bierstadt died in New York City in 1902.

Albert Bierstadt immigrated to New Bedford, Massachusetts, with his family in 1832. He traveled to Düsseldorf, Germany to study in landscape painting with German-American painter Emanuel Leutze in 1853.  In the mid-1800s, Americans were interested in remote national territories.  Expeditionary forces mapped, photographed, and painted the far west territories.   In 1859, Bierstadt was the first major painter to go west as a member of Frederick Lander’s expeditionary party.  He sketched in the Wind River and Shoshone country during the summer of 1861. 

Bierstadt’s “great pictures” emphasize large-scale scenery and dramatic light effects. His use of large canvases influenced Utah landscape artists.  The paintings of John Tullidge, George Beard, Alfred Lambourne, and H. L. A. Culmer draw from his vision.

Rocky Mountains, Laramie Peak and Rocky Mountains, Landers Peak are two of his early works.  In 1863, he was in Utah where he painted The Great Salt Lake (1863).  Other notable works include Valley of Yosemite (1864), The Heart of Andes (1859), Sunset Light, Wind River Range of the Rocky Mountains (1861), and Yosemite Valley; Sunset in the Yosemite Valley (1868).

Biographical information on this page was adapted from Artists of Utah.