Albert Bierstadt

Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902) was a German-American painter renowned for monumental depictions of the American West. Born in Solingen, Prussia, he emigrated as a child to New Bedford, Massachusetts, later returning to Germany to train in Düsseldorf. Back in New York he joined the second generation of the Hudson River School, but a westward journey in 1859 with surveyor Frederick Lander redirected his art toward the Rockies.