COLLECTION NAME:
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
mediaCollectionId
ArtArtHiAAH~7~7
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
Collection
true
Image Record ID:
aahi0000318
image_record_id
aahi0000318
Image Record ID
false
Work Title (display):
Rainy Season in the Tropics
Image Title:
full view
Work Dates (display):
1866
Work Dates type:
creation
Work Creator (display):
Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826-1900)
Work Creator gender:
male
work_creator_or_agent_gender
male
Work Creator gender
false
Work Creator notes (display):
American painter. He was a leading representative of the second generation of the Hudson river school, who made an important contribution to American landscape painting in the 1850s and 1860s. The son of a wealthy and prominent businessman, he studied briefly in Hartford with two local artists, Alexander Hamilton Emmons (181684) and Benjamin Hutchins Coe (17991883). Thanks to the influence of the Hartford patron daniel Wadsworth, in 1844 he became the first pupil accepted by Thomas Cole. This was an unusual honour, though Cole probably offered little useful technical instructionhe once observed that Church already had 'the finest eye for drawing in the world'. However, Cole did convey certain deeply held ideas about landscape painting, above all the belief that the artist had a moral duty to address not only the physical reality of the external world but also complex and profound ideas about mankind and the human condition. Church eventually abandoned the overtly allegorical style favoured by his teacher, but he never wavered from his commitment to the creation of meaningful and instructive images. Church began exhibiting works in New York at the National Academy of Design and American Art-Union while he was still under Cole's instruction. His first success, the Rev. Thomas Hooker and Company Journeying through the Wilderness from Plymouth to Hartford, in 1636 (1846; Hartford, CT, Wadsworth Atheneum), was a historical landscape that celebrated the founding of his home town. Though the painting was somewhat contrived in composition, and still heavily dependent on Cole, details of foliage, branches and rocks were handled with extraordinary precision, and the radiant, all-encompassing light indicated how carefully the young artist had studied natural phenomena. After settling in New York in 1847, Church followed a routine of sketching in oil and pencil during summer trips in New York State and New England and painting finished pictures in his studio during the autumn and winter. Most of his works were straightforward American landscapes painted with a crisp realism indicative of his interest in John Ruskin's aesthetics, but he also exhibited, almost every year until 1851, imaginary or allegorical works reminiscent of Cole with such themes as the Plague of Darkness and The Deluge (both untraced). In the summer of 1850 Church made his first visit to Maine, beginning a lifelong association with that state. A number of fine marine and coastal pictures resulted, such as Beacon, off Mount Desert Island (1851; priv. col., see 198990 exh. cat., p. 26). About this time he started to read the German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt's Cosmos (184562), paying particular attention to the chapter on landscape painting and its relationship to modern science. He began to produce compositions that fused panoramic scope with intricate, scientifically correct detail, such as New England Scenery (1851; Springfield, MA, Smith A. Mus.). Although the didactic emphasis of these works recalled Cole's moralizing landscapes, their strongly nationalistic tone and promise of revelation through scientific knowledge made them especially appealing to Church's contemporaries. Humboldt's description of the tropics of South America as a subject worthy of a great painter inspired Church to travel there in the spring of 1853. He returned to New York with numerous pencil drawings and oil sketches of South American scenery. The first finished pictures based on these studies, such as La Magdalena (1854; New York, N. Acad. Des.), appeared in the spring of 1855 at the National Academy, where they caused a sensation. Even more successful was the Andes of Ecuador (1855; Winston-Salem, NC, Reynolda House), a sweeping view across miles of mountainous landscape animated by a luminous atmosphere. In 1857 Church unveiled Niagara (1857; Washington, DC, Corcoran Gal. A.; see United states of america, fig. 14), the work that made him the most famous painter in America. This tour de force of illusionistic painting brought the spectator to the very brink of the falls, capturing the effect of North America's greatest natural wonder as had no previous work. Exhibited by itself in America and England between 1857 and 1859, Niagara was seen and admired by thousands. In spring 1857 Church returned to South America to gather material for a new series of major tropical landscapes. The first to appear was his masterpiece, the Heart of the Andes (1859; New York, Met.; see fig.), which was displayed in the Tenth Street Studio Building in New York in a darkened room with carefully controlled lighting. Surrounded by moulding designed to resemble a window-frame, the painting overwhelmed contemporaries with its intricately painted foreground of tropical plants and its breathtaking vistas along lines leading to several vanishing points in the mountainous distance. Like Niagara, the Heart of the Andes toured cities in the USA and England, receiving enthusiastic critical and popular acclaim. During the late 1850s and early 1860s Church was at the height of his powers, painting large-scale exhibition pieces, such as Twilight in the Wilderness (1860; Cleveland, OH, Mus. A.), The Icebergs (1861; Dallas, TX, Mus. A.) and Cotopaxi (1862; Detroit, MI, Inst. A.). He continued to paint major works in the years immediately after the Civil War but with an increasing emphasis on visionary atmospheric effects reminiscent of J. M. W. Turner, as in Rainy Season in the Tropics (1866; San Francisco, CA, de Young Mem. Mus.), Niagara Falls, from the American Side (1867; Edinburgh, N.G.) and the Vale of St Thomas, Jamaica (1867; Hartford, CT, Wadsworth Atheneum). Church continued to travel widely, visiting Jamaica in 1865 and Europe and the Near East in 18679. On the journey home, in June 1869, he took advantage of a brief stay in London to study works by Turner. Although a number of important works by Church subsequently appeared in the late 1860s and the 1870s, only a few, such as Jerusalem (1870; Kansas City, MO, NelsonAtkins Mus. A.), approached the power of his earlier works. Similarly, his late South American scenes gradually became less convincing as his memory of the tropics dimmed. Perhaps his last successful full-scale work was Morning in the Tropics (1877; Washington, DC, N.G.A.), which has a poetic, introspective quality. Church spent most of the last years of his life at Olana, the house he built on top of a hill overlooking the Hudson River, just across from Catskill, NY. From there he made numerous trips in the last decades of his life, especially to Maine and Mexico. Although few finished works of note date from these years, Church did paint dozens of superb oil sketches, often of the sky seen from Olana. These sketches, now in Olana and the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design in New York, are among his most beautiful creations. Olana survives with many of its original furnishings intact. It contains a collection of Church's works in all media, as well as an important archive of documentary material. (Grove Art Online Accessed 2006-07-26)
Work Style Period:
19th century
work_styleperiod
19th century
Work Style Period
false
Work Style Period:
Hudson River school of landscape painting
work_styleperiod
Hudson River school of landscape painting
Work Style Period
false
Work Subject:
landscapes (representations)
subject
landscapes (representations)
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
mountains
subject
mountains
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
tropics
subject
tropics
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
rainbows
subject
rainbows
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
fog
subject
fog
Work Subject
false
Work Worktype:
oil paintings
work_type
oil paintings
Work Worktype
false
Work Worktype:
paintings (visual works)
work_type
paintings (visual works)
Work Worktype
false
Work Category (VRC classification):
paintings
work_category__ucbaahvrc_classification_
paintings
Work Category (VRC classification)
false
Work Material and Technique (display):
oil on canvas
Work Measurements (display):
142.9 cm (H) x 214 cm (W)
Work Inscription (display):
Signed; Dated
Work Location (Repository or Site) name:
M.H. De Young Memorial Museum
Work Location (Repository or Site) role:
repository
Work Location (Repository or Site) refid:
1970.9
Work Location (Repository or Site) refid type:
accession
Work Location (Geographic) name:
San Francisco, California
Image Rights (display):
© Ronald Wiedenhoeft. Licensed for educational use via Scholars Resource: Saskia, Ltd.
Image Rights license agreement:
SASKIA, LTD.: WHO CAN USE THIS SOFTWARE: (a) Licensee, including faculty, staff and currently enrolled students may use the Licensed Software to display and or print the corresponding graphic images without limitation for teaching and research purposes at the defined Sites, or at remote locations having electronic access to your Site(s). (b) This license include permission to use the Licensed Software on a multi-user network at the defined Site, and to permit remote access to a computer/server located at your Site. Simultaneous display in multiple locations at or connected to the Site is also permitted. (c) Licensee agrees to employ reasonable security measures designed to limit access to your faculty, staff and currently enrolled students. PROHIBITED USES AND LIMITATIONS: (a) Saskia hereby reserves all rights not expressly granted herein. (b) the License Software may not be used for preparaiton of any publication, scholarly or otherwise; or for any purpose other than teaching or research. Publication of an image from the Licensed Software requires a separate license from Saskia. (c) Licensee agrees not to resell, lease, transfer, sub-license or otherwise distribute a copy of the Licensed Software, or any image taken from the Licensed Software, in whole or in part. (d) Licensee also agrees not to modify, corrupt or alter any digital image graphic content or "digital watermark" or the like in the software provided by Saskia under this Agreement. (e) Licensee agrees not to remove, alter, cover or distort Saskia's copyright notice, trademark, or other proprietary rights notice placed by Saskia in the Licensed Software itself, or in the associated packaging, media or documentation. (f) And Licensee agrees to notify users of the Licensed Software, in writing or by sign-on screen display, of their obligations under this Agreement and solicit their cooperation and compliance with such obligations.
Work Rights (display):
public domain
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Holding Institution:
University of Colorado at Boulder
Collection:
Art and Art History Visual Resources Center
Collection info and contact:
For information about this collection, see