Frederic Edwin Church - Heart of the Andes [1859]

Frederic Edwin Church - Heart of the Andes [1859], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This picture was inspired by Church's second trip to South America in the spring of 1857. Church (Hartford, Connecticut, 1826 - New York City, 1900) sketched prolifically throughout his nine weeks travel in Ecuador, and many extant watercolours and drawings contain elements found in this work. The picture was publicly unveiled in New York at Lyrique Hall, 756 Broadway, on April 27, 1859. Subsequently moved to the gallery of the Tenth Street Studio Building, it was lit by gas jets concealed behind silver reflectors in a darkened chamber. The work caused a sensation, and twelve to thirteen thousand people paid twenty-five cents apiece to file by it each month. The picture was also shown in London, where it was greatly admired as well.

See: resources.metmuseum.org/resources/metpublications/pdf/Chu...

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 168 x 302.9 cm]

Frederic Edwin Church - The Parthenon [1871]

Frederic Edwin Church - The Parthenon [1871], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Church visited Greece in 1869 and spent several weeks in Athens. There, he painted numerous studies and oil sketches of the ruins of the Parthenon that later served as the basis for this work. Although he intended to paint a large canvas of the Parthenon while still in Greece, it was not until 1871 that a commission from the financier and philanthropist Morris K. Jesup permitted Church to begin this large canvas. By February of that year, he was already at work on "a big Parthenon". By May, he had apparently finished the painting and wrote of his concern for its proper lighting in Jesup's home. The picture was first exhibited in New York at Goupil's Gallery in 1872 where it was highly acclaimed. It appeared subsequently in many major exhibitions, including the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1878.

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 113 x 184.5 cm]

Frederic Edwin Church - Aurora Borealis [1865]

Frederic Edwin Church - Aurora Borealis [1865], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The ship and sled team in this image belonged to Frederic Church's (Hartford, Connecticut, 1826 - New York, 1900) friend, polar explorer Dr. Isaac Hayes. Hayes had led an Arctic expedition in 1860, and gave his sketches from the trip to the artist as inspiration for this painting. Hayes returned from his voyage to find the country in the thick of the Civil War, and in a rousing speech vowed that "God willing, I trust yet to carry the flag of the great Republic, with not a single star erased from its glorious Union, to the extreme northern limits of the earth." Viewers understood Church's painting of the Aurora Borealis (also known as the northern lights) as a portent of disaster, a divine omen relating to the conflict.

[Oil on canvas, 142.3 x 212.2 cm]