Biography

Albert Bierstadt was born in Prussia and came to the United States as a young child. He spent his childhood in New Bedford, Massachusetts. In 1853, he left for Europe where he studied art and trained with Emmanuel Leutze. When he returned to the United States, Bierstadt traveled to the Rocky Mountains where he captured the natural beauty of the American west in sketches and preliminary paintings that he completed when he returned east. His completed paintings and exceptional skill made him immediately successful. Frances "Fanny" Seward recounts her friends Ellen and Molly going to see one of his paintings of Mount Hood in her 1866 diary while she was in Washington, DC.