Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California was painted by Albert Bierstadt in 1868. Bierstadt, An German-American painter, was born January 7, 1830 in Solingen, Germany. He was only two years old when his family moved from Germany to New Bedford in Massachusetts. He developed a sensitivity for art early and made crafty crayon sketches in his youth. In 1851, he began to paint in oils. His oil paintings were different with respect to the odd colors he used to paint water, tints of green, etc. In 1853, he returned to Germany to study in Dusseldorf, where he developed his abilities by painting Mountain landscapes. Landscape paintings became popular in the 19th century as an independent category. This genre was also the focus of many other popular painters, and was so stirring that they actually increased tourism in Europe and America. Of all the great American landscape paintings, few were as bulging and outstanding as those that were painted by Albert Bierstadt. In 1857, he came back to New Bedford and taught drawing and painting briefly before devoting himself to painting. He also joined an overland study expedition which allowed him to travel westward across the country. Along the route, he took numerous photographs and made sketches of the grand mountain ranges and dramatic rock formations which he began the studies for his massive canvasses painted in his New York studio. In 1858, he unveiled a large painting of a Swiss landscape at the National Academy of Design, which prompted positive responses and honorary membership in the Academy. At this time, Bierstadt began making paintings in New England and upstate New York. In 1859, he traveled westward with a good friend name, Frederick W. Lander, a land surveyor for the U.S. government. He then returned with sketches that resulted in numerous finished paintings to a studio at the Tenth Street Studio Building in New York. In 1863 he traveled west again, this time with the company of the author Fitz Hugh Ludlow. He
