Frederic Edwin Church as an American painter. He was one of the Hudson River Valley school of artists.

His Early Life

Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900): Frederic Edwin Church was a renowned American landscape painter. He was born on May 4, 1826, in Hartford, Connecticut. Church was the son of Joseph Church who was a successful businessman as a silversmith and jeweller. He was a director of several financial firms. (His mother’s brother owned an iron foundry that constructed the US Capital Dome.) The family’s wealth made it possible for Frederic to pursue his interest in art from an early age.

Thomas Cole’s Pupil

When he was 18 years old, Frederic became a student of Thomas Cole in his studio at Catskill, New York. Frederic studied with him for two years and by this time, his talent became all the more evident.

During his stay with Cole, Frederic visited places like East Hampton, Long Island, Catskill Mountain House, The Berkshires, New Haven and Vermont and other scenic places around New England and New York. Church made sketches and painted landscapes and his first recorded sale of a painting was in 1846 for $130.

It was a pastoral depicting Hooker’s Journey in 1636. Church was elected as the youngest Associate of the National Academy of Design. He became a full member in the following year.

By the year 1850, Church had settled in New York. Church began his career by painting classic Hudson River School scenes of New York and New England. He exhibited his art at the American Art Union, the Boston Art Club and most impressively, the National Academy of Design.

Frederic Church was creating paintings in his studio based on the sketches of nature made outside the studio. He earned a reputation as a traveller-artist as he conducted sketching trips to the While Mountains, Western Massachusets, the Catskills, Hartford, Conn, Niagara, Virginia, Kentucky and Maine.

His Trips to the South American Countries

Frederic Church also made two trips to South America in 1853 and 1857. During this period, he visited volcanoes and cities of Colombia, Ecuador and the isthmus of Panama.

During these trips, Frederic produced a number of landscapes of Ecuador and the Andes such as The Andes of Ecuador (1855), Cayambe (1858), the Heart of the Andes (1859) and Cotopaxi (1852). Among these paintings, The Heart of The Andes was Church’s most famous painting depicting a broad portrait of nature.

The exhibition of this painting in New York in 1859 drew thousands of people and the painting was an instant success. Church eventually sold the painting for $10000 and it was the highest price ever paid for a work by a living American artist.

His Masterpieces

Some of the masterpieces of Frederic were New England Scenery (1851), Experts say that ‘it was the first true composite landscape’. The sketches were used from various locations ‘to develop a more detailed and spatially compiled landscape than found in Cole’s work’. ‘The Hert of the Andes’ (1859), ‘Cotopaxi’ (1862), ‘Tropical Scenery’ (1873) are some of his other masterpiece paintings.

He was a Successful Artist

Church’s friendship with a prominent arctic explorer stimulated his interest in the arctic regions. In 1859, Church travelled to Newfoundland and Labrador with his friend Louis Legrand Noble, an author. Church’s painting ‘The Icebergs‘ finds its mention in Noble’s book ‘After Icebergs with a Painter (1861).

By 1860, Church was already a commercial and artistic success. He had become the most renowned American artist. In 1861, Church drew ‘Our Banner in the Sky‘ at the start of the Civil War as a symbol of his support to Americal victory. In 1863, he became an Associate Fellow of the Americal Academy of Arts and Sciences.

His painting ‘The Iceberg’ (1861) sold for a record-setting amount in 1979.

Fredric’s Final Years

Church had been enormously successful as an artist. In the last decade of his life, he was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and this ailment made his movement and his ability to paint difficult.

Thereafter, he started painting with his left hand and continued to produce works though at a slower pace. He still taught painting to his students as his mentor Thomas Cole did. Though he kept a studio in New York, he sublet let as his illness had restricted his movement.

His wife, who had been suffering from illness for several years, died in 1889. Less than a year later, on April 7 1900, Church died at 73 years of age.

American museums began to acquire Church’s works. His painting ‘Th Iceberg’ sold for $2.5 million and the amount was the third-highest auction for any work of art.

A major exhibition held by the National Gallery of Art ‘American Light: The Luminist movement 1825-1875’, honoured Church as the leading American painter of his time.

The Ola Partnership, a private non-profit organization, established the Frederic Church Award in 1999 to honor individuals and organizations who make extraordinary contributions to American Art.

Frederic Edwin Church – His Travels

Frederic Edwin Church was a great traveller during his active years as a painter. He travelled to the Arctic, Medico, South America, the Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East. He painted beautiful landscapes at all the places that he visited.

The Arctic: The breathtaking views of the frigid have come alive in Church’s painting ‘Icebergs’ made in 1859. Church visited several times and stayed in the freezing Arctic region for several weeks and made sketches of the ice-clad landscape.

Expedition to The Acrtic

Church painted the massive white blocks of icebergs under the dim lights of the sky above. Experts say that Church added a broken ship’s mast to the foreground of the painting at a later date.

They also assume that the painter was intending to highlight the failed expedition attempts of the many other earlier explorers. Inspired by the success of his painting expedition to the Arctic, Church painted ‘Aurora Borealis’ which depicts the natural phenomenon better known as the Northern Lights.

Expedition to South America

Frederic Edwin Curch’s travelled to South America twice, in 1853 and 1857. He was a staunch follower of Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt who was known for his writings on nature and his teachings.

Humboldt had spent several years in South America, where he studied the continent’s natural history and wrote extensively on that subject. Humboldt’s teachings had influenced Church strongly.

Hence, Church retraced Humboldt’s steps during his expedition to South America. ‘Cotopaxi’ (1862) is one of his marvellous paintings that portray the elegant geographical contours of the naturally rich landscapes.

Church’s Expedition to Ecuador

Frederic Church was not a plein air painter. He made a detailed study of nature and then compiled the best features of nature into a large scale canvas.

Experts believe that Frederic Church’s marvellous painting ‘Heart of the Andes’ was a tribute to the naturalist and writer Humbolt. It was also thought of as a visual synopsis of Humboldt’s work in that part of the continent, who died just before he could see this painting.

Experts also believe that the Church made a glorious attempt to depict over a hundred identifiable species of plants and five different Ecuadorian climates.

Experts say that in the museums where this painting is on exhibition, the authorities provide visitors with opera glasses to help them view the vivid details of these intricately painted natural elements.

His Travel to Jamaica

Church’s travel to Jamaica was as much an experience of ecstasy as it was immensely tragic. That is because Church and his wife had to spend several months in Jamaica in 1865 when they lost two young children to diphtheria.

In spite of this grief, the resolute power of Church’s painting skill not only helped him overcome the grief but also produce some marvellous paintings. He travelled all over the Jamaican island to study the landscape and its floral variety and the atmospheric effects.

He created large paintings using these sketches. ‘Vale of St. Thomas Jamaica‘, ‘Morning in the Tropics’ are two examples of Church’s commendable painting experience in Jamaica.

‘Heart of Andes’

‘Heart Of Andes’ is an impressive landscape painting by Frederic Edwin Church. In a series of these paintings, Church depicted the scenery that he saw during his two visits to South America. Frederic Church is famous for his paintings of foreign settings made during the course of travel to many countries.

Church’s journey all over the world was the result of inspiration drawn from Alexander von Humboldt. Humboldt was a Prussian explorer, writer and natural scientist. Humboldt’s five-volume books titled ‘Cosmos’ narrated that all the world’s ecosystems are interconnected.

Humboldt went on an expedition through South America in 1799-1804. He suggested that more and more painters should visit and paint the South American landscape.

‘The American Humboldt’

Frederic Church took Humboldt’s advice seriously even though both never met each other during their lifetime. An art historian has characterised Humboldt as ‘Church’s distant mentor’.

In that sense, Church has come to be identified as the kind of ideal landscape painter that Humboldt had envisioned in his writings. For this reason, Frederic Church became known as ‘the Americal Bumboldt’. Church painted ‘Heart of the Andes‘ after his visit to Columbia and Ecuador in 1853 and 1857.

Church often visited the very same sites as Humboldt had during his journey and, hence, experts feel that Humboldt’s writings became a sort of travel guide for Frederic Church and his companion.