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 :. | The Rocky Mountains | Wooded Hillside | Gates of the Yosemite | Estes Park, Colorado | Sunrise over Forest and Grove |
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Niccolo di Pietro Gerini
Italian Painter, active ca.1368-1415 died in Florence in 1415, earned reputation of an important Italian painter. He represents giottesque school, in the tradition of the Andrea di Orcagna (1320-1368) and of Taddeo Gaddi. His father Pietro Geri is registered as a member of Lucas Guild in 1339. Niccolo worked mainly in Florence, although he also carried out commissions in Rome (Vatican), Pisa and Prato. He was first recorded in 1368 as a member of the Arte dei Medici e Speziali in Florence but is identifiable with the Niccolo dipintore who collaborated with Jacopo di Cione on frescoes for the Guildhall of the Judges and Notaries in Florence in 1366. It is self-evident that he is the Niccolaio dipintore who worked with Jacopo di Cione on the altarpiece of the Coronation of the Virgin (presently in London, National Gallery) for St Pier Maggiore, Florence in 1370 and was paid 12 golden florins per disegnare la tavola dell altare in November of the same year. He designed the altarpiece and the elaborate throne canopy with his usual fine painting and detailed ornaments whilst Jacopo di Cione was depicting side saints. This altarpiece is amongst of very few largest commissioned in 14th century Florence. It was seemingly commissioned by Albizzi family. He was collaborating with Jacopo di Cione on Coronation of the Virgin (Accademia, Florence) in 1372. Offner and Steinweg suggest that he was responsible for the design and fine painting and Jacopo for the execution of saints. It was commissioned by the mint of Florence Zecca Vecchia on the same year. In 1383 Gerini again worked with Cione on a fresco of the Annunciation in the Palazzo dei Priori, Volterra. This fresco clearly shows the work of two very different artists: Niccolo di Pietro Gerini (design and very fine painting) and Jacopo di Cione (broadly painted saints and side decoration). In 1386 Niccolo frescoed the façade of the Bigallo, Florence. He also frescoed Sant Ambrogio church in Florence Gerini performed the Crocefissione of St Felicita church in Florence. His hand is clearly on sacrestia of the basilica of Saint Croce to Florence with Scenes of the life of Christ. Between 1391 and 1392 he worked in Prato where he frescoed Palazzo Datini, church of Saint Francisco with Lorenzo di Niccolo and Agnolo Gaddi. He also frescoed capitolare of the church of Saint Francisco, Pisa. Very typically for Gothic depiction Gerini figures have large chins, sloping foreheads, and sharp noses whilst their bodies are squat and frontally displaced. Another important artist Lorenzo di Niccol?? di Martino was trained in Niccol?? di Pietro Gerini workshop and later collaborated with the master but was not his son as sometimes erroneously stated. Gerini though had a son Bindo di Niccolo di Pietro Gerini, born in 1363, who is registered as member of Lucas Guild since 1408. Niccolo di Pietro Gerini works can be found in major art galleries of Rome, Vatican, Florence, London, Milan, New York, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, St Petersburg, Boston, Cambridge, Budapest, Birmingham, Pegalo, Prato, Pisa, Altenburg, Avignon, Denver and several other museums.
Carl Schuch
(30 September 1846 - 13 September 1903) was an Austrian painter, born in Vienna, who spent most of his lifetime outside Austria, in Germany, Italy and France. He painted primarily still lifes and landscapes. During the period 1882-94 he was based in Paris, where he was greatly impressed by the work of Claude Monet whom he described as "the Rembrandt of plein-air painting" although he was attracted most of all to Rembrandt and the artists of the Barbizon school. In 1884 and 1885 he spent the summer months in the Netherlands, studying the Dutch old masters as well as the contemporary painters of the Hague School, and filling notebooks with detailed descriptions of the colors he observed in paintings that he admired. Of all the artists belonging to the circle around Wilhelm Leibl (called the Leibl-Kreis), Schuch was the most devoted to color. His work marks the transition from the realist tradition to the modern movement in Vienna, esthetically, however, it is far from contemporary trends, and from its means and ends, comparable to Paul Cezanne (Gottfried Boehm, referring to Arnold Gehlen).
Abraham Jansz Van Diepenbeeck
1596-1675, Flemish glass-painter, draughtsman, painter and tapestry designer. His reputation rests primarily on his drawings and oil sketches, of which several hundred survive, intended mainly as designs for stained-glass windows and prints. He was strongly influenced by the work of other important Flemish artists of the late 16th century and early 17th, notably Rubens, whose motifs and stylistic elements he frequently reworked in his own compositions.