Frederic Edwin ChurchThe Grandeur of the Wilderness

First created 21 Jun 2013. Version 2.0 26 Apr 2016. Jerry Tse. London. Twilight in the Wilderness (Detail). 1860.

Early years

Storm in the Mountain. 1847. Oil on canvas. 76x73 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

Frederic Edwin Church was born in Hartford, Connecticut on 4 May 1826 and die on 7 Apr 1900. He was an American landscape painter best for his large panoramic landscapes, depicting mountains, waterfalls and sunsets.

Early years

An early sketch

Sunset, Bar Harbor. 1854. Oil on paper. 26x44 cm. New York Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation / Olana State Historic Site Hudson NY,

Early years

Early years

La Magdalena. 1854. Oil on canvas. 71x106 cm. National Academy of Design. New York.

Niagara. 1857. 108x229 cm. FE Church. Corcoran Gallery. Washington DC.

First success

This was Church’s first major success. The view of the falls is unusually clear, without the sprays or mist that obscured the far side. The height of the falls appeared to be reduced. The viewer stood in the water without any foreground and without any background. The painting emphasized the edge of the falls, created a tension in the viewer. With its unusual format, the painting created a freshness and a sensation.

American Sublime – the Wilderness is the Cross

Cross in the Wilderness. 1857. Oil on canvas. 42x62 cm. Museo de arte Thyssen-Bornemisza. Madrid.

Forest Pool. c1858-60. Oil on paper mount on canvas. 32x32 cm. NY State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

A detail study of a dense forest.

Leaning tree

Major success

The large size of the painting allows your eyes to travel into the painting space. The Heart of The Andes. 1859. 168x303 cm.

On his gigantic painting every inch is painted with extraordinary details. Church used a very large canvas, larger than one’s field of view. It encourages us to explore details and move from scenes to scenes. It was sold at a unprecedented price of $10,000. Today it is at the Metropolitan Museum, New York.

Magnifying Details

Theatrical viewing

Church charged his audience to see his painting and an exhibition of tropical flowers and plants. Audience sat in rows and were given pairs of operatic binoculars to examine the details of his painting. It attracted 12,000 people in three weeks in New York then travelled to Britain and 7 other US cities on tour for 2 years. The Heart of The Andes was his first major success.

The painting was placed in a window-frame, in a darkened room, covered by curtains. It became a window into the tropic.

The flaming sky and a darkling lake foretold the coming of the Civil War a year later. Twilight in the Wilderness. 1860. 101x162 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

The sky in flame

The flaming sky and a darkling lake foretold the coming of the Civil War a year later. Twilight in the Wilderness. 1860. 101x162 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

The sky in flame

The flaming sky and a darkling lake foretold the coming of the Civil War a year later. Twilight in the Wilderness. 1860. 101x162 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

The sky in flame

Drama in the Sky

The drama in the sky maybe a symbolic comment on America. The sky in the ‘Twilight in the Wilderness’ signified the rise of America.

A ship crashed by nature

The painting was the result of Church’s visit to Newfoundland in 1856. It is a statement of the fragility of man in the face of nature. The Icebergs. 1861. Oil on canvas. 163x285 cm. Dallas Museum of Arts.

A ship crashed by nature

The painting was the result of Church’s visit to Newfoundland in 1856. It is a statement of the fragility of man in the face of nature. The Icebergs. 1861. Oil on canvas. 163x285 cm. Dallas Museum of Arts.

A ship crashed by nature

The painting was the result of Church’s visit to Newfoundland in 1856. It is a statement of the fragility of man in the face of nature. The Icebergs. 1861. Oil on canvas. 163x285 cm. Dallas Museum of Arts.

Religious Symbolism

Many of his paintings included Christian religious symbols like crosses and rainbows. At times, they can be very subtle, like the disguised ‘cross’ of the mast of the sinking ship in The Icebergs.

To Edwin Church, the silent spectacle of the sunset in the wilderness and the beauty of American nature is charged with religious significance. The word ‘sublime’ is often used to describe such a feeling when faced with the grandeur of the wilderness.

The Civil War

Painted only week after the start of the American Civil War. The American sunrise turns into a torn flag, with the North Star shinning through a patch of the sky. Our Banner in the Sky. 1861. Oil on paper mount on cardboard. 19x29 cm. Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago.

His most famous paintings were about the grandeur of nature. He would paint an entire mountain, a volcano or an iceberg. He chose the topology very carefully, with a near view for his extraordinary details, middle ground for the open spaces and a distance backdrop of the grandeur. Cotopaxi. 1862. 122x226 cm. Dallas Institute of Arts.

This was painted during the Civil War. The rising sun of America was struggling, nearly eclipsed by the destructive violence of the volcano. Like blood, the land was covered with flaming colours.

Volcano and the eclipsed sun

Cotopaxi. 1862. 122x226 cm. Dallas Institute of Arts.

Enlarged Details

Coast Scene, Mount Desert. 1863. Oil on canvas. 87x122 cm. Wadsworth Atheneum Hertford, Connecticut.

Birds

Frederic Edwin Church like to include birds in his painting, like the use of an exotic bird in his The Heart of The Andes. In particular, he liked to use flock of birds in flight to suggest the grand scale of his painting.

Chimborazo. 1864. Oil on canvas. 122x213 cm. Huntington Library. Los Angeles.

Chimborazo. 1864. Oil on canvas. 122x213 cm. Huntington Library. Los Angeles.

Chimborazo Detail screens. Note float garden and the cross (top left). The hidden village (bottom centre).

Magnifying Details

Fern Walk, Jamaica. 1865. Oil on paper mounted on canvas. 31x34 cm. New York Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation / Olana State Historic Site Hudson NY,

Rainy Season in the Tropics. 1866. Oil on canvas. 143x214 cm. The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.

Distant human activities

In his paintings there are tiny human figures, engaging in whatever they are doing. This emphasizes the enormity of his landscape. It also introduces a sense of mystery in his painting. As always human presence is insignificant when compare to that of nature.

Tumbling water of Niagara

Niagara Falls from the American Side. 1867. Oil on canvas. 257x227 cm. National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh.

Tumbling water of Niagara

Niagara Falls from the American Side. 1867. Oil on canvas. 257x227 cm. National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh.

Visit to the Middle East

Church is one of the most well travelled painter of his time. Ed Deir, Peta, Jordan. 1868. Oil and graphite on thick paper. 33x51 cm. National Design Museum. Smithsonian Institution.

Visit to Europe

Obersee, Germany. 1868. Oil on paper mounted on canvas. 33x51 cm. New York Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation / Olana State Historic Site Hudson NY,

Visit to Europe

Winter Twilight from Olana. C1871-72. Oil on board. 26x33 cm. New York Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation / Olana State Historic Site Hudson NY,

El Rio de Luz (The River of Light). 1877. Oil on canvas. 138x214 cm. National Gallery of Art. Washington DC.

El Rio de Luz (The River of Light). 1877. Oil on canvas. 138x214 cm. National Gallery of Art. Washington DC.

Use of near-side trees to bring the details.

Church liked to use near-side trees as part of the extra-ordinary details in his grandeur landscape.

This is one of his late painting. Church painted this at the age of 65 (probably with his left hand), when he was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. The Icebergs. 1991. Oil on canvas. 51x76 cm. Carnage Museum of Art.

Late period

Comparison – American and

European Landscape

Biography

Frederic Edwin Church is the best known painter of the Hudson River School and the most travelled. He was born in 1826 into a well-to-do family in Connecticut.

From 1844 to 1846, he was a pupil of Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School.

By 1850 he was ready to start out on his own by moving to New York.

In 1857 & 1858 he stunned spectators in New York and London with his 7-feet-wide painting of Niagara (Corcoran). It was the exhibition of the Heart of the Andes in 1859 that won his fame.

In 1867 with his wife, Church travelled to Europe and to the Middle East.

In 1860 he bought a farm in Hudson and married Isabel Carnes and began to raise a family.

In 1870 he bought some farmland and began to construct a Persian-inspired mansion, with a magnificent views of the Hudson River and the Catskills hills.

In 1853 he followed the footsteps of the naturalist Humboldt and travelled to Colombia. Then he travelled again in 1857 to Ecuador.

By 1876 he was enormously successful as an artist but was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. Eventually he painted with his left hand.

In 1900 he died, at the age 74.

Music – Excerpt from the Third Movement Antonin Dvorak, New World Symphony, Symphony No 9 in E minor. Op 95. Written during his visit to the United States from 1892 to 1895.

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The Parthenon. 1871. Oil on canvas. 113x185 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York.

The End

The American Painters