Frederic Edwin Church was one of the great American artists of the 19th century. A pupil of the celebrated American landscape painter Thomas Cole, Church’s study of the work of the English art theoretician John Ruskin and the German geographer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt encouraged him to pursue his own direction in art in which science, art and religion were combined.
In 1853 Church embarked on an expedition to South America, following in Humboldt’s steps. During the trip he executed drawings and oil sketches of mountains, trees and plants in the manner of a true naturalist. He later made use of these works for the large-scale compositions that he produced in his studio.
Church painted South American Landscape in his New York studio two years after his return from Ecuador. It is an imaginary synthesis of different motifs that the artist had previously recorded in his drawings and oil sketches, including the palm tree and the Chimborazo volcano that makes its first appearance here in a finished composition. Such motifs, as well as the female figure in the foreground, the waterfall below a bridge on the left and the church on the hillside, fit together awkwardly. Rather than any unifying perspective there is a superimposition of different ecosystems, each executed from a different viewpoint. Most striking, however, is the astonishing and minute detail with which the tiniest details are painted, a characteristic of Church’s work that brought him great fame during his own lifetime.

JAL

19th Century19th Century. North American Painting. Hudson River SchoolPaintingOilcanvas
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