Artist. He is best remembered for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West that glorified it as a land of promise. A prolific artist, he completed over 500 paintings during his lifetime. He emigrated with his family from Prussia to New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1831 and became interested in art at an early age, making crayon sketches in his youth and later painting in oils. In 1853, he returned to Germany and studied painting for several years in Dusseldorf with members of its informal school of painting. He returned home four years later and briefly taught drawing and painting, before devoting his life full-time to painting. In 1858, he exhibited a large painting of a Swiss landscape at the National Academy of Design, which gained him positive critical reception and honorary membership in the Academy. At this time, he began painting scenes in New England and upstate New York, including in the Hudson River Valley. In 1859, he traveled westward with Frederick W. Lander, a land surveyor for the U.S. government, to sketch landscapes. After returning to his studio in New York, he turned his sketches into in numerous finished paintings. In 1863, he traveled west again with author Fitz Hugh Ludlow to do additional sketches, then converted them into other large-scale paintings for exhibition. In 1863, during the American Civil War, he was drafted into the Union Army, but paid for a substitute to serve in his place. In 1867, he traveled to London, England, where he exhibited two of his landscape paintings in a private reception with Queen Victoria. He then traveled throughout Europe for the next two years, cultivating social and business contacts to sustain the market for his work overseas. In 1871, he travelled to the Yellowstone region and sketched the area's geysers and picturesque topography, turning them into paintings when he returned to his studio. His works were instrumental in convincing the U.S. Congress to pass the Yellowstone Park Bill in 1872 that established the first national park in the world. His Yellowstone paintings generated so much publicity that his presence was requested by every explorer considering a westward expedition. He was commissioned by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad to visit the Grand Canyon for further subject matter. In 1876, his wife was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and, from then until her death in 1893, he spent time with her in the warmer climate of Nassau in the Bahamas. Despite his popular success, he was criticized by some contemporaries because his paintings leaned heavily towards romanticism, coupled with his perceived excessive use of light. In later life, his work fell out of favor and was often attacked for its theatrical tone. In 1882, his studio at Irvington, New York, was destroyed by fire, resulting in the loss of many of his paintings. By the time of his death at the age of 72, the taste for epic landscape painting had long since subsided. Among his notable paintings include "The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak" (1863), "Looking Down Yosemite Valley" (1865), "Staubbach Falls, Near Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland" (1865), "Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California" (1868), "Yosemite Valley, Yosemite Park" (1868), "Lake Tahoe" (1868), "Rocky Mountain Landscape" (1869), "Storm in the Mountains" (1870), "Sierra Nevada" (1871 to 1873), "California Spring" (1875), "Mount Corcoran" (1876 to 1877), "The Last of the Buffalo" (1888), and "Alaskan Coastal Range" (1889). Mount Bierstadt and Bierstadt Lake in Colorado are named in his honor. In 1998, the U.S. Postal Service issued a set of 20 commemorative stamps entitled "Four Centuries of American Art," one of which featured his "The Last of the Buffalo." In 2008, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp in its "American Treasures" series that featured his painting "Valley of the Yosemite" (1864).