The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-02-23
ALBERT B~IERsrADT.

The death of Albert Bierstadt on the
18th inst. removes a painter OF landscape.
who In his day occupied a very consider
able position In American art. That his
day reached its meridian thirty years z
and that the point OF view Of painters has
changed considerably since then. as wei!
as the attitude of the American public
toward the art OF its own painters. only
makes the "Reminiscences more interesting.
Born at Dusseldorf In 1890. Mr.. Bierstadt
was brought to this country when very
young. his family settling in New Bedford.
Mass. As a youth he was devoted To draw
ing n began 20 paint when about 20 years
old. Resolved to adopt painting as a pro-
~fession. he returned to Dusseldorf in 1853
and entered the Academy under leasing;
later studying for a year in Italy. In 1853
he wal back in the United States and joined
In the expedition OF Gen. Lander into the
Rocky Mountains and California.
The result was a number Of lar ge and
imposing pictures OF nature in its grand
eet aspects. such as the valley Of the Yo-
semitic In the Lencr collection, Mount
Corcoran" In the Corcoran Art Gallery
at Washington, d. c.; Laramie Peak In
the Academy OF Fine Arts, Buffalo, and
'Lander's Peak and Mount Resale, =
which are owned in England, For the
enthusiasm aroused by these pictures
extended to Europe, and many painting
visits which Mr.. Bierstadt made TO the
other side OF the Atlantic, still further in
creased his reputation in both h~emispheres.
He received medals In Austria, Germany.
Bavaria and Belgium, the Cross Of the
Legion OF Honor, two degrees Of the Order
Of st. Stanislaus Of Russia and the Imperial
Order OF the Medjidi. conferred by the
Sultan OF Turkey.
II was the same kind OF success that
greeted the work Of Frederick E, Church,
though perhaps still more pronounced;
and it is noteworthy that 1t had Its begin
ming in American appreciation. Possibly
some ecidt may have been attached to
Blerstadt through his study In Dusseldorf,
for those were Dusseldor1an days, but this
would not account for Church's following
and indeed It seems as IL Americans Of
forty years ago were more enthusiastic
than to-day over the work Of their own
painters. They did not wait for their
painters to receive the Involvement Of
foreigners; there was, In fact, a closer
rapport between the artists and the public,
and In the less cosmopolitan society OF
that period. the artist occupied a position
OF much CONSIDERATION.
1t Is quite possible that pictures such as
Bierstadt's appealed to a more naive taste:
to hat Low of the big and imposing Of
which Barnum so prcftably awaited himself.
But even SO, this does not explain why a
presumably more cultivated taste IL so
chary OF doing justice TO pictures In which
just such taste Is expressed and will still
give large prices for foreign pictures.
often on the mere recommendation of a
dealer, while It considers the purchase Of
an American landscape as something of
q condescension and expects that the price
shall be proportionately smaller.
Again, IL Ia customary nowadays TO
speak d~isparagingly OF Bierstadt as having
introduced into this country the Dnssel-
dorian method OF huge typographical
landscapes. under the influence Of his
master, leasing. who was given to senti-
mentalism and exaggeration. Well, If IL
were a question between the merits Of this
sort OF landscape and that of the Barbizon
men. it would be different, but We are
concerned at the moment rather with
Bierstadts personal contribution TO Ameri-
can art. And j can quite believe that he
had those large ideas in his mind be-
fore he went 10 Dusseldorf. They were
days when a star had appeared in
the West, reckoning all kinds of men
wise and otherwise; days of expansion
and large imaginings, and the fact that
Bierstadt made for the West Immediately
upon his return home rather points to the
spontaneousness of the impulse. The
movement of $780, was in large measure
a recoil from the barren grandiloquence Of
classicalism, while Bierstadt's impulse was
from the narrower conditions Of the East
TO the wider grandeur Of the West Each,
in it's way. was natural and had nature for
its goal. And il was because Bierstadt
responded to the ~teitgeist of his age that
his reputation was great and deserved.