Albert Bierstadt Oil Painting Reproductions

About Albert Bierstadt

Albert Bierstadt, born in 1830, was a German-American artist best known for the monumental landscapes that glorified the American West. He belonged to the Hudson River School, and Bierstadt's canvases did practical work as well as pictorial work: they showed the frontier to people who had never seen it and helped push westward expansion along.

One canvas carries the whole argument. Among the Sierra Nevada, California is an 1868 oil-on-canvas painting of the California mountain range, and he painted it not in the West but at his studio in Rome. It was exhibited throughout Europe, where it created interest in immigration to the United States, and at 72 by 120 and an eighth inches it is a wall rather than a picture. Today it is a centerpiece of the landscape collection at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. In the years that the same painter was working he also took on the Alps, the Hudson valley and the Pacific coast, with the same eye for weather and distance.

Series and periods

The collection sorts by country as much as by subject, since the same painter worked the Rocky Mountains, the Alps and the Atlantic shore.

• The American West: the mountain canvases that made his name, and the wagon trains that crossed in front of them. Titles here: Rocky Mountain Landscape, The Sierra Nevadas, Passing Storm, Western Trail, The Rockies, Emigrants Crossing the Plains.
• California and the Yosemite valley: the redwoods, the water and the valley studies, plus the seals on the rocks off the coast. Titles here: Giant Redwood Trees of California, Landscape Study, Yosemite, California, Vernal Falls, Seals on the Rocks, Farallon Islands.
• Switzerland and the Alps: the European side of the work, the Alpine peaks and the waterfalls of the Tyrol. Titles here: Sunrise on the Matterhorn, The Wetterhorn, Staubbach Falls, Near Lauterbrunnen, View of the Grunewald.
• The East and the Pacific coast: the river pictures from the East, the White Mountain summit and the water at both ends of the country. Titles here: Indian Summer Hudson River, Mount Washington, Mount Baker, Washington, Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast, Wharf Scene.
• Warm water and the war: the tropical bays, and the one Civil War picture in the group. Titles here: Island of New Providence, Tropical Landscape with Fishing Boats in Bay, Guerrilla Warfare, Picket Duty in Virginia, The Campfire.

Most famous works

These are the Bierstadt titles people ask for most in this collection, ordered by the traffic each one draws and by what actually sells. Each name opens its own page, where you choose the size and decide on a frame. Every one is painted in oil after Bierstadt, to order, and no two hands read a brushstroke the same way.

• Among the Sierra Nevada, California: the 1868 oil on canvas of the California range, painted at his studio in Rome and then exhibited across Europe, where it created interest in immigration to the United States. The original, 72 by 120 and an eighth inches, is a centerpiece of the landscape collection at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and it is the one Bierstadt on our list of the 100 most famous
• Giant Redwood Trees of California: the redwoods at the scale he preferred, and the first title the collection itself tells people to start with
• Emigrants Crossing the Plains: a wagon train on the open plains, the westward story the monumental landscapes were built to carry
• Rocky Mountain Landscape: the Rocky Mountains at the distance he liked, the range closing the back of the view
• The Sierra Nevadas: the same California range as the famous canvas, on a smaller scale
• Passing Storm: weather doing the work, a storm moving off the California peaks
• Western Trail, The Rockies: a trail cut through the Rockies, one of the western subjects
• Indian Summer Hudson River: the river in fall color, the eastern ground the Hudson River School painters shared
• Mount Washington: the New England summit, painted with the same reach as the western mountains
• Mount Baker, Washington: the peak named in the title, seen across a long distance
• Sunrise on the Matterhorn: early light on the Matterhorn, from the Alpine side of his work
• The Wetterhorn: a towering Alpine peak in Switzerland, one of the European subjects
• Staubbach Falls, Near Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland: water dropping down a Swiss cliff face, the subject and nothing else
• Vernal Falls: the same subject in California, on Bierstadt's home ground
• Landscape Study, Yosemite, California: a working sketch rather than a finished canvas, the Yosemite valley set down on the spot
• Seals on the Rocks, Farallon Islands: seals on the rocks off the California coast, animals given the room usually kept for mountains
• Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast: the Pacific coast in heavy weather, one of the marine pictures
• Sunset over the River: a river mouth at sunset, the best selling title in the collection
• Wooded Landscape: trees and nothing else, the quiet end of the list
• Tropical Landscape with Fishing Boats in Bay: fishing boats in a warm bay, far from the Rocky Mountains
• Island of New Providence: an island subject from the same warm water group
• Wharf Scene: boats at a wharf, a small picture of working water
• Guerrilla Warfare, Picket Duty in Virginia: picket duty in Virginia, the war subject in a body of landscape
• The Campfire: a fire at night with figures around it, the human end of the western story
• View of the Grunewald: a European forest view, painted with the same attention as the American landscape

Browse by subject

Bierstadt's subjects run through other collections of ours, and each one is a different door into the same painter.

• Landscape paintings: 8,004 works, the genre in which the main subject is a wide view of natural scenery, mountains, valleys, rivers, trees and forests, with sky almost always in the view and weather often an element of the composition. Every Bierstadt belongs here, which is the shortest way to say what he did.
• Tree paintings: 4,858 canvases, The redwoods, the wooded views and the Grunewald forest, gathered by the motif.
• Seascape paintings: 4,178 titles, figurative work that draws its main inspiration from the sea, a genre particularly strong from the 17th to the 19th centuries and stretched in practice to cover shipping on rivers and estuaries, beach scenes and anything with a boat in it. Puget Sound, the wharf and the tropical bays, the part of his work the mountains usually hide.
• Boats and ships: 184 pieces, The fishing boats in the bay and the wharf, with boats painted by everyone else on our list.
• Animal paintings: 1,819 paintings, the work of painters who specialize in the portrayal of animals. The Farallon seals, next to the animals of painters who did nothing else.
• The 100 most famous paintings of all time: one canvas by Bierstadt sit on this list, our reading of the best known paintings in art history, the 1868 California canvas.

The full list of painters we reproduce in oil is on the artist index.

How each reproduction is painted

Nothing here is stock. When you order, an artist paints that title in oil on canvas in the size you picked, layer by layer, and you see a photograph of the finished painting and approve it before it leaves the studio. The artists who paint these each have 15 or more years at the easel and work from the public domain original, so a frame you skip today can be added later, and a size you outgrow later is a different order, not a lost one. Seven sizes are available and the frame is optional, so the same picture can be a small study by a desk or the one thing on a wall. Shipping is free worldwide and returns stay open for 90 days.

Frequently asked questions

Which Albert Bierstadt painting is the most famous?

The 1868 canvas of the California range, which is a centerpiece of the 19th century landscape collection at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. It is also the one Bierstadt title on our list of the 100 most famous.

How large were the originals?

He is best known for monumental landscapes, and the numbers back the word up: the Smithsonian canvas measures 72 by 120 and an eighth inches. A museum of art can give a picture that much wall; at home the same view works better at a size you choose.

Was Bierstadt part of the Hudson River School?

Yes. He was a prominent member of it, and Bierstadt's monumental canvases of the frontier both celebrated the country's natural resources and encouraged westward expansion, which made landscape painting a national argument as much as a genre. Indian Summer Hudson River is the title here closest to that eastern ground.

Did Bierstadt paint outside the United States?

Often. The Smithsonian canvas was created at his studio in Rome and shown throughout Europe, and the Alps gave him Sunrise on the Matterhorn, The Wetterhorn and the waterfall near Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland.

When did Bierstadt work?

He lived from 1830 to 1902, and the western canvases belong to the second half of that span, the years when the frontier was still being crossed.

Which Bierstadt should I start with?

For the picture art history argues about, take the 1868 California canvas. For the West as a story, take Emigrants Crossing the Plains. For trees on a gallery wall, take the Giant Redwood Trees of California, and for water, Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast.

Are these original Albert Bierstadt paintings?

No. Each one is a new painting, made by hand in oil on canvas after Bierstadt's composition. It is a reproduction, not a print, and not the original canvas.

What sizes and frames can I order?

Every Bierstadt reproduction here comes in seven sizes, with an optional frame. You see a photo of the finished oil painting and approve it before it ships, worldwide shipping is free, and returns stay open for 90 days.