Giant Redwood Trees of California, by Albert Bierstadt

Photo credit: Albert Bierstadt Org & Wikipedia

German-American artist Albert Bierstadt (7 January 1830 – 18 February 1902) studied painting at the Düsseldorf school of painting from 1853 to 1857.  He was a member of the Hudson School, a rather informal group of artists.  The artwork of members of the Hudson School is characterized by luminism or the use of glowing light.  However Bierstadt is also grouped with the Rocky Mountain School because of his interest in Westward Expansion.  He is the foremost painter of the American West.  He was a prolific and financially successful artist.

“In 1859, he traveled westward in the company of Frederick W. Lander, a land surveyor for the U.S. government, returning with sketches that would result in numerous finished paintings.” (Albert Bierstadt, Wikipedia)

Bierstadt went back West in 1863, traveling with author Fitz Hugh Ludlow, whose wife he would later marry.

When my family moved to British Columbia, I was seduced by the beauty of snow-capped mountains and Giants among trees.  I decided I would never leave so beautiful an environment.  But destiny had other plans.  I am writing a long article and suffering from a bout of myalgic encephalomyelitis.  I am, therefore, a little late.  My longer blog be will posted today, but I wanted to send you a progress report and a short post.  My research took me to Albert Bierstadt.

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Albert Bierstadt