
Frederic Edwin Church Painting Reproductions Gallery 2 of 3
1826-1900American Hudson River School Painter
Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 - April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters.
The wealth of Church's father allowed him to pursue his interest in art from a very early age. At eighteen years of age, Church became the pupil of Thomas Cole in Palenville, New York. He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Design five years later, in 1849. Soon after, he sold his first major work to Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum.
Church settled in New York where he taught his first pupil, William James Stillman. From the spring to autumn each year Church would travel, often by foot, sketching. He returned each winter to paint and to sell his work.
Church became known for painting colossal views, often of exotic locations. His painting "Heart of the Andes", now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, measures over five feet high and nearly ten feet in length. Church unveiled the painting to an astonished public in New York City in 1859. He installed the work in a specially-lit room with curtains and palm fronds, and charged the public admission to view it. The painting was an instant success. He eventually sold it for $10,000, at that time the highest price ever paid for a work by a living American artist.
In 1860 Church bought a farm in Hudson, New York and married Isabel Carnes. Both Church's first son and daughter died in March, 1863 of diphtheria, but he and his wife started a new family with the birth of Frederic junior in 1865.
When he and his wife had a family of four children, they began to travel together. In 1867 they visited Europe and the Middle East, allowing Church to return to painting larger works.
Before leaving on that trip, Church purchased the eighteen acres (73,000 m2) on the hilltop above his Hudson farm - land he had long wanted because of its magnificent views of the Hudson River and the Catskills. In 1870 he began the construction of "Olana" on that site. This highly personal and eclectic castle incorporated many of the design ideas that he had acquired in the Middle East. Olana, now owned by the nonprofit Olana Partnership and administered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is a New York State historic site open to the public. While Church continued to paint monumental landscapes at Olana, he also enjoyed painting small, spontaneous sketches of clouds and sunsets from his hilltop home.
58 Paintings of Frederic Edwin Church
Boston Museum of Fine Arts Massachusetts USA
Otter Creek, Mt. Desert
$2086
$48.53
National Gallery of Art Washington USA
El Rio de Luz (The River of Light)
$3342
$48.53
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Kansas City USA
Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives
$6144
$78.71
Brooklyn Museum of Art New York USA
Tropical Scenery
$3092
$79.92
Cleveland Museum of Art Ohio USA
The Monastery of San Pedro (Our Lady of the Snows)
$3006
$48.53
Cleveland Museum of Art Ohio USA
Storm in the Mountains
$2265
$60.97
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University Massachusetts USA
Sunset from Olana
$912
$48.53
Philadelphia Museum of Art Pennsylvania USA
Pichincha
$3098
$48.53
Smithsonian American Art Museum Washington USA
Aurora Borealis
$2934
$49.47
Smithsonian American Art Museum Washington USA
Cotopaxi
$3378
$48.53
Carnegie Museum of Art Pittsburgh USA
The Iceberg
$2068
$48.53
Westervelt Warner Museum of American Art Alabama USA
Above the Clouds at Sunrise
$2394
$49.61
Private Collection
Tropical Landscape
$1574
$48.53
Private Collection
New England Landscape with Ruined Chimney
$1070
$48.53
Private Collection
View on the Magdalena River
$2848
$48.53
Reynolda House Museum of American Art North Carolina USA
The Andes of Ecuador
$3149
$48.53
Wadsworth Atheneum Hartford USA
Vale of St. Thomas, Jamaica
$2901
$48.53
Private Collection
Icebergs and Wreck in Sunset
$1188
$48.53
Private Collection
El Khasne, Petra
$916
$48.53
Bayly Art Museum Virginia USA
The Natural Bridge, Virginia
$2244
National Academy Museum New York USA
Scene on the Magdalena
$3070
Private Collection
Cotopaxi
$1084
$48.53
Seattle Art Museum Washington USA
A Country Home
$3224
$48.53
Wadsworth Atheneum Hartford USA
Hooker's Party Coming to Hartford
$2605
$48.53