German-born American Hudson River School Painter, 1830-1902 Bierstadt was born in Solingen, Germany. His family moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1833. He studied painting with the members of the D??sseldorf School in D??sseldorf, Germany from 1853 to 1857. He taught drawing and painting briefly before devoting himself to painting. Bierstadt began making paintings in New England and upstate New York. In 1859, he traveled westward in the company of a Land Surveyor for the U.S. government, returning with sketches that would result in numerous finished paintings. In 1863 he returned west again, in the company of the author Fitz Hugh Ludlow, whose wife he would later marry. He continued to visit the American West throughout his career. Though his paintings sold for princely sums, Bierstadt was not held in particularly high esteem by critics of his day. His use of uncommonly large canvases was thought to be an egotistical indulgence, as his paintings would invariably dwarf those of his contemporaries when they were displayed together. The romanticism evident in his choices of subject and in his use of light was felt to be excessive by contemporary critics. His paintings emphasized atmospheric elements like fog, clouds and mist to accentuate and complement the feel of his work. Bierstadt sometimes changed details of the landscape to inspire awe. The colors he used are also not always true. He painted what he believed is the way things should be: water is ultramarine, vegetation is lush and green, etc. The shift from foreground to background was very dramatic and there was almost no middle distance Nonetheless, his paintings remain popular. He was a prolific artist, having completed over 500 (possibly as many as 4000) paintings during his lifetime, most of which have survived. Many are scattered through museums around the United States. Prints are available commercially for many. Original paintings themselves do occasionally come up for sale, at ever increasing prices.  Related Paintings of Albert Bierstadt :. | Farallon Islands, off San Francisco in the Pacific, Northern California | Indian Scout | Westfallische Landschaft | View of the Parliament Buildings from the Grounds of Rideau Halls | Dogwood by Albert Bierstadt |
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Henry Mark Anthony
(4 August 1817 - 1 December 1886) was an English landscape artist, often favourably compared to John Constable by critics. He exhibited at many major art institutions and travelled widely, being credited with introducing the en plein air style of painting to Britain.
Cornelis van Poelenburch
(1594 - 12 August 1667) was a Dutch Golden Age landscape painter. Though his birthplace is unknown, a signed document survives in Utrecht where he is listed as six years old and the son of Simon van Poelenburch, a Catholic canon in Utrecht.He initially trained with Abraham Bloemaert, and his earliest signed paintings are from 1620.He traveled to Rome where he was influenced by Adam Elsheimer and became a founding member of the Bentvueghels. He counted a few cardinals under his patrons, and was called to England by Charles I of England, for whom he made small cabinet pieces. He returned to Utrecht where he later died just a few years after his old teacher Abraham Bloemaert.He painted mostly small landcapes with mythical or religious figures or passages, in a style that would later be evident in some of the works of Claude Lorraine. His "most important and successful" pupils were Daniël Vertangen, Dirck van der Lisse, François Verwilt, and Jan van Haensbergen. Arnold Houbraken claimed that his best pupil was Joan vander Lis from Breda (not Dirk vander Lis from The Hague). Houbraken then mentioned Vertangen, Verwilt, Warnard van Rysen from Bommel, and Willem van Steenree, a nephew. The RKD also mentions Laurens Barata.
Viggo Johansen
Danish Realist Painter, 1851-1935 Danish painter. He trained at the Kongelige Akademi for de Skenne Kunster from 1868 to 1875 under Jergen Roed. In 1871 he began to visit the fishing hamlet of Hornbek on the north coast of Zealand, not far from Copenhagen, often with painters such as Peter Severin Kreyer and Kristian Zahrtmann. Here Johansen painted pure landscapes, or alternatively figures from the village traditional population, seen in their homes. A Meal (1877; Copenhagen, Hirschsprungske Saml.) shows an elderly fisherman seated at table eating potatoes, attended by his wife; dull daylight from a window in which a net is drying illumines the frugal interior and worn figures.