Frederic Edwin Church is the most well-known member of the Hudson School of painters, who were primarily landscape painters. The word 'sublime' describes the emotional response to immensity or boundlessness, when faced by phenomena of great magnitude. This feeling of sublimation often occurs when confronted by the grandeur of the American wilderness. There is no better American artist to portrait this feeling than Frederic Edwin Church. This was in a time of when America was opening up. Forests were cleared for farming. Factories were being built in the east. Canals connected waterways and railway tracks were laid. This was also a time of the Second Great Awakening, with the founding of new religious sects. In the arts, it was the time of Romanticism, which saw the futility of humankind up against the overwhelming power of nature. Lastly, it was also the time of the American Civil War. It was during period that Frederic Edwin Church celebrated the grandeur of the American Wilderness in his paintings. This is part of a series of Powerpoints on American painters.

1. Frederic Edwin
Church
The Grandeur of the Wilderness
First created 21 Jun 2013. Version 3.0 1 Jul 2019. Jerry Tse. London.Twilight in the Wilderness (Detail). 1860.

2. Storm in Mountain. 1847
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.

3. New Rock, New Heven. 1849

4. Clouds at Sunset. 1849

5. Old Boat. 1850

6. Natural Bridge. 1853
(Following slides) By this time Edwin
Church had perfected his composition
with a nearby trees, The waterfall, the
shinning water surface and the flaming
sky.

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

8. Mount Ktaadn. 1853

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

10. Cotopaxi. 1855

11. Andes of Ecuador. 1855

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

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

14. Cotopaxi. 1857

15. 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. 1858

16. 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.

17. 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

18. 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.

20. 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.
Flaming Sky. 1860

21. 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.
Flaming Sky. 1860

22. 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.
Flaming Sky. 1860

23. 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.

24. Icebergs 1861
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.

25. 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.
Icebergs 1861

26. 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.

27. Banner in the Sky. 1861
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.

28. 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.
Cotopaxi 1862

29. Cotopaxi. 1862. 122x226 cm. Dallas Institute of Arts.
Enlarged Details

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

31. 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.

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

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

34. Chimborazo Detail screens. Note float garden and the cross (top left). The
hidden village (bottom centre).
Chimborazo (Details). 1864

35. 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,
Fern Walk. 1865

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

37. 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.

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

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

40. Peta, Jordan. 1868
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.

41. Obersee, Germany. 1868
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,

42. Konigssee, Bavaria.
1868

43. Hudson Valley 1870

44. 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,
Winter Twilight from Olana. 1871

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

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

47. 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.

48. 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.
The Icebergs. 1991

49. Comparison –
American and
European Landscape

50. 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.

51. 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.
All rights reserved. Rights belong to their respective owners.
Available free for non-commercial and personal use.
The Parthenon. 1871. Oil on canvas. 113x185 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York.
The
End

52. North American Painters