Bierstadt, Albert (1830-1902)

German-born US landscape painter. His spectacular panoramas of the American wilderness fell out of favour after his death until interest in the Hudson River School was rekindled in the late 20th century. A classic work is Thunderstorm in the Rocky Mountains (1859; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).

Taken by his parents to America when two years old, he returned to Düsseldorf to study 1853-57, and going back to the USA in 1858 took part in General Lander's expedition across the Rockies to map an overland wagon route to the Pacific.

His Discovery of the Hudson hangs in the Capitol in Washington, DC.