Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Bierstadt, Albert
BIERSTADT, Albert, born at Düsseldorf, in Germany, in 1828. His parents emigrated to the United States when he was two years of age, and settled in New England. He went to Germany in 1853, studied painting in the Düsseldorf Academy, spent a winter in Rome, made the tour of Switzerland and the Appennines, and returned to the United States in 1857. In 1858 he accompanied General Lander's expedition to the Rocky Mountains, where he spent several months in making sketches. He was made an Academician in 1860. In 1863 he produced his celebrated picture, "View of the Rocky Mountains,—Lander's Peak," which at once gave him a high reputation. Among his subsequent works, the most noticeable have been—"Sunlight and Shadow," "The Storm in the Rocky Mountains," "Domes of the Yosemite," "Laramie Peak," "Emigrants Crossing the Plains," "Mount Hood," "Mount Whitney," and "Scene near Fort Laramie." In 1873 he visited the Pacific coast, and engaged upon new pictures of that region. In 1871 he was made a member of the Academy of Fine Arts of St. Petersburg. His house and studio at Irvington, New York, were destroyed by fire in November, 1882; but, though his loss was considerable, his more valuable pictures were fortunately at his studio in New York City, and so escaped destruction.