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LIVING AMERICAN ARTISTS.     605

in this way. Scarcely more than this, for he seldom remains over a few minutes in a studio before he glides back, on slippered sole, to mount his studio stairs again.

And so goes on his life from day to day, during the working week. His Sundays he spends with his family on Staten Island.

Whatever the differences of opinion among his fellow-artists as to the value of Page's method, or as to the success of his results as a colorist, there are no two opinions as to the worth of his advice. No man's opinion goes further among his fellow-workers than does his. There is comfort in it often, profit always, for it is sincere and born of the knowledge of fifty years among pictures and among men. If you would know a man, seek the knowledge of him among his fellow-laborers.

ALBERT BIERSTADT, N.A.

There are a few landscape painters living whose reputations have reached so far as that of Albert Bierstadt. His paintings are as well known and at least as highly appreciated in Europe as they are here. Whilst this is due in a great measure, no doubt, to the artistic merit of his works, it is still more due to the fact that he is a leader among those who first essayed to give expression on canvas to the great and grand in Nature, of which the scenery of the West is so prolific. Whatever may be the differences of opinion upon the merit of his technique, there are none as to his genuine love of art, or of his devotion to it, so often proved by "hair-breadth 'scapes by flood and field."

Nor do those qualities, to which this artist's success is due, cease when the toilsome journey is ended or when the skillfully manipulated painting – for the material of which he may have traveled four thousand miles – has dried upon the canvas, Possessing, in a remarkable degree, those qualities which in a man add daily to his list of friends; gentle in manners; open-hearted; active, without show of it, in all matters tending to the help of a fellow-worker; generous, but not obtrusive in his charities, and being gifted with consummate business tact, it is not surprising that his name should have a double value, or his works receive an amount of recognition and appreciation not always conceded to those of others of possible equal merit, who are known only by the evidences of their talent. 

Albert Bierstadt was born on the 7th of January, 1830, at Solingen, near Düsseldorf, where, it might be assumed by the speculative philosopher, he drew inspiration from the very atmosphere of the place. But since he was permitted to remain only a couple of years in the neighborhood of the great German School, we are unwilling to concede any credit to it for influencing his future, even in this subtle way. Albert's father left Germany for the United States in 1832, and settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Here Albert was educated. Unlike other youths, afterwards famous as artists, he was not a prodigy in the art way; didn't sleep with a color-box under his pillow, or transfigure the fences of the neighborhood with elaborate designs in chalk. But he was noticeable, at a very early age, for his love of adventure, and his first appeal for popularity was a composition which he wrote at school, when twelve years old, entitled "The Rocky Mountains." This might be supposed, judging from his after labors, to contain a description of the scenery since so attractive to him. But such is not the fact, for the paper, still preserved by his family, is devoted to the details of a bear-hunt, the chief end of which was supply food for the hunters.

It was not until some years after the date of this production that the future landscape painter began to show that his leaning was towards art. But even at this time, his efforts did not give promise of future power; for then as now, we presume, he felt more than he expressed, and had a quiet way of making up his mind, not easily disturbed. His mother, a cousin of the celebrated painter, Hasenclever, knew something of the vicissitudes of an artist's life, and tried to persuade Albert to devote himself to some other calling, but ultimately yielded to the persistent wickedness of the boy who had determined to run all risk, satisfied that the goal was well worth striving for, and anxious, besides, to begin the world by depending upon his own resources. 

This he did when still young by teaching crayon drawing, to the practice of which he had devoted himself for two or three years. 

He was twenty-one years old when he made his first attempt at painting in oils, but in two years he had made such satisfactory progress, and had received such recognition of it, that he was in a position to realize a long-cherished dream of visiting Düsseldorf. 

So, in 1853, he reached the German school where he had proposed to pursue his studies with the advice of his mother's relative, then in the zenith of his fame. Unhappily, the first news he heard on his arrival was the death of Hasenclever. Here, however, he

Transcription Notes:
You can see many of Albert Bierstadt's huge paintings in Washington, D.C. I went to Solingen a few years ago, and it still had the old cobblestone streets, and old homes in the town. It is about 30 minutes outside of Dusseldorf.