Mount Adams, Washington (1875)

Albert Bierstadt prints bring the grand scenery of the American West to your walls. In the 1860s Bierstadt showed Americans the Rocky Mountains, Yosemite Valley and the Sierra Nevada on canvases up to ten feet wide, full of snowy peaks, still lakes and golden light. Our collection has 162 of his paintings and oil sketches as fine art prints, from The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak to Yosemite's waterfalls and the giant redwoods of California.

About Albert Bierstadt

Albert Bierstadt was born on 7 January 1830 in Solingen, in the Rhine Province of Prussia, and his family emigrated to New Bedford, Massachusetts, the following year. In 1853 he went back to Germany to train in Düsseldorf, then a leading center for landscape painting, and he sketched in the Alps and traveled in Italy before returning home in 1857.

In 1859 he joined Colonel Frederick W. Lander's government survey west along the Oregon Trail, sketching the Wind River Range in what is now Wyoming. The huge studio paintings that followed made him famous. In 1863 he traveled west again with the writer Fitz Hugh Ludlow and spent about seven weeks in Yosemite Valley. He later married Ludlow's former wife, Rosalie, and named a Colorado peak, Mount Rosalie, after her. In 1866 he built Malkasten, a large house and studio above the Hudson at Irvington, New York.

By the late 1870s taste in America was moving toward French painting, and critics called his big canvases theatrical. A fire in 1882 destroyed his Irvington studio and many paintings, and Rosalie died in 1893. Bierstadt died in New York City on 18 February 1902. He made more than 500 paintings, and Mount Bierstadt in Colorado is named in his honor.

Style and Subjects

Bierstadt belongs to the second generation of the Hudson River School, the first American landscape movement, but he took its love of wilderness much farther west. His best-known pictures are wide, deep views: a valley or lake in the middle, mountains rising on both sides, and light breaking through clouds or mist, often from behind the peaks. Tiny figures, a camp or a herd of deer give a sense of scale.

He worked in two stages. Outdoors he made quick oil sketches of skies, rocks and sunsets, and back in the studio he combined them into large finished paintings, raising peaks and adding lakes and sunbeams for drama. His small sketches and cloud studies are looser and fresher than his showpieces, and many of them are in our collection too.

Famous Works

• The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak (1863), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. A Shoshone camp below a waterfall, lake and snowy peak; it sold for $25,000 in 1865.
• Looking Down Yosemite Valley, California (1865), Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama. The first big painting from his Yosemite trip, with golden evening light between granite walls.
• A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie (1866), Brooklyn Museum, New York. Storm clouds roll over a Colorado valley as sunlight breaks through onto a lake.
• Merced River, Yosemite Valley (1866), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. A quiet summer view of the river beneath pale cliffs.
• Among the Sierra Nevada, California (1868), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington. A mountain lake, waterfalls, storm clouds and deer at the water's edge, all in one view.
• Giant Redwood Trees of California (1874), Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Sunlight filters through a grove of redwoods, with tiny figures at their base.
• The Last of the Buffalo (1888), National Gallery of Art, Washington. A mounted hunter and a charging bison on a plain, painted as the great herds disappeared. Our print of A Wild Stallion is one of his oil sketches for it.

Decorating with Bierstadt Prints

Bierstadt's panoramic mountain and lake views are made for big walls. Hang The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak or Among the Sierra Nevada over a sofa, fireplace or bed, where the wide format and warm golden light can fill the space. They suit cabins, lodges and rustic or traditional interiors especially well.

His Yosemite valleys, redwoods and Pacific Northwest peaks work in studies, home offices and hallways, and the small cloud studies and sunset sketches are a good choice for narrow walls or a gallery grouping. For a calmer room, look for his Hudson River and New England scenes, such as View on the Hudson, which have the same glowing light on a gentler scale.

Frequently Asked Questions

What art movement was Albert Bierstadt part of?

Bierstadt was part of the second generation of the Hudson River School, the American landscape movement founded by Thomas Cole. He and Frederic Church took its style to grander scenery, in his case the Rocky Mountains, Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada.

What is Albert Bierstadt's most famous painting?

The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak (1863) made him famous and sold for $25,000 in 1865. It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Where can I see Albert Bierstadt's original paintings?

Major works are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama, among many others.

Did Albert Bierstadt really see the places he painted?

Yes. He traveled west in 1859 and 1863 and made sketches and studies on the spot. In the studio he then rearranged and heightened what he had seen, so his finished paintings are based on real places but are not exact views.

Is there a mountain named after Albert Bierstadt?

Yes. Mount Bierstadt, a peak of just over 14,000 feet west of Denver, Colorado, is named in his honor.

Related Artists

• Thomas Moran, fellow painter of the American West, known for Yellowstone
• Frederic Edwin Church, second-generation Hudson River School painter of grand scenery
• Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School
• Worthington Whittredge, who knew him in Düsseldorf and traveled in Italy with him
• Sanford Robinson Gifford, Hudson River School painter of glowing light