Albert Bierstadt – Landscape Painter of the American Frontier

By Earl Hunsinger

Although he was born in Germany and lived in the Eastern United States for most of his life, his paintings idealized the untouched western frontier. Along with the work of Frederick Church and other painters of the Hudson River school, his paintings have been called propaganda encouraging an ever increasing westward expansion. As the Time article Manifest Destiny in Paint says, his paintings, along with those of Church, were "the pictorial equivalent to the myth of Manifest Destiny." It could be argued then that his paintings helped to destroy the very beauty and culture that they depicted.

Albert Bierstadt was born in Solingen, Germany on January 7, 1830. Although his family moved to New Bedford Massachusetts when he was two years old, he returned to Germany in 1853 to study painting with members of the Düsseldorf School. Upon his return to the United States, he began painting in New England and New York before traveling west with a government land surveyor in 1859. The sketches he made on this trip later formed the basis for numerous paintings.

Included in these were the paintings Thunderstorm and Indian Encampment, Shoshone Village. In his book Albert Bierstadt, Matthew Biagell indicates that there are at least five design characteristics of Thunderstorm that can be attributed to the use of photographic sources during its creation. He says that this type of organization "marked a new and significant compositional format for artists," but wonders why it was not exploited more fully. He also calls Indian Encampment, Shoshone Village a romanticized painting, since it shows Native Americans in a very peaceful domestic setting.

Bierstadt returned to the west again in 1863 and numerous times throughout his career. Although his paintings were very popular with the public and sold for large sums, he wasn’t as popular with the critics. In part, this was because his paintings were much larger than those of his contemporaries, which they felt was a sign of egotism. In addition, critics felt that his subjects were romanticized and his use of light excessive, charges which at least some art historians have echoed.

In spite of any romanticism or aggrandizement evident in his work, his paintings are still very popular today. For example, in 2001 Christie's auction house sold his painting A Sioux Camp Near Laramie Peak (ca. 1859) for $941,000. If this is a little steep for your wallet, it is also possible to buy prints of many of his paintings, either at a museum gift shop, such as the one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, or in various online stores. For online prints, you might try Art.com, Art Unframed, or AllPosters.com.

Albert Bierstadt was a prolific artist. The exact number of paintings that he created in his lifetime seems to be unknown, but some estimate that they may number as many as 4,000, most of which have survived. It would be difficult to collect and display all of them, even in print form. If you would like to tour a virtual gallery, various museum sites show a few of his paintings. However, the most extensive online collection I have found is run by a private individual named Glenda Moore. Her Bierstadt Gallery contains 560 different paintings.

Propagandist or not, Albert Bierstadt was a talented artist whose works are still being enjoyed today. As well as being impressive works of art, his depictions of a vanishing frontier and an untouched wilderness, along with the people living there, made important contributions to American History. If you are not familiar with his work, I encourage you to visit one of the many museums that display his paintings, or visit the virtual gallery located at the link given above.