Edward Beyer

An artist best known for his mid-nineteenth century views of Virginia, Edward Beyer was born in the German Rhineland in 1820. He studied at the Dusseldorf Academy and worked in Dresden before coming to the United States around 1848. Active in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, and Virginia during the 1850s, Beyer was one of the earliest professional landscape artists in the nation, producing scenes in a precise and detailed topographical style informed by his classical training.

From 1845-1856, Beyer sketched and painted extensively in western Virginia, portraying picturesque market towns, landmarks, resort springs, and plantations. Characterized by crisp, bright colors and painstaking attention to detail, many of these views of the state were included in his illustrated Album of Virginia, a rare folio of over forty color lithographs. Printed in Dresden and Berlin by leading lithographers, the collection was bound, published, and marketed in Richmond in 1857 and 1858. The artist then returned to Germany, where, in 1863, he successfully exhibited a panorama of 150 views of America.

Provenance
Private Collection, New York State, until 2006