Albert Bierstadt

Albert Bierstadt made this drawing of a cooperage (barrel maker) during a sketching trip along the Rhine in the spring of 1854. Emphasizing the foreground, he precisely rendered the costumes and phases of barrel-making, as well as a picturesque old stone structure, perhaps the forge. His future focus on landscape is suggested by the cliffs in the distance, depicted by leaving the tan paper blank and filling in the sky with opaque white wash.

Known for his majestic landscapes of the American West, Bierstadt was trained in Germany at the Düsseldorf Academy, where he learned accurate draftsmanship and the truthful rendering of natural forms.