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South American Landscape
1856oil on canvas
14 3/8 in. x 21 1/4 in. (36.51 cm x 53.98 cm)
Gift of Henry Melville Fuller, 1981.68
Frederic Edwin Church
American
1826–1900
ON VIEW
In 1853, Frederic Church made his first visit to South America, where he found the subject matter that would catapult him to international fame. The snow-capped mountains, erupting volcanoes, and vast, unsettled plains were the sources of images of a sublime and primeval wilderness that delighted and amazed his fellow New Yorkers. The details of the landscapes-exotic flowers, trees, and vines, brightly colored birds and strange animals, and picturesque natives-were equally fascinating when rendered in Church's clear, sparkling style. The best known of these images-The Heart of the Andes (1859; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and Cotopaxi (1862; Detroit Institute of Arts)-were mammoth in scale and spectacularly dramatic in their imagery. But in the years just following the 1853 voyage, Church also painted a series of pictures with a domestic scale and lush, pastoral imagery that were equally persuasive of South America as a natural paradise.
The painting South American Landscape was one of a pair of pictures Church executed for the collector John Earl Williams; the companion piece, North America (now lost) was an autumnal scene. This painting, presumably based on sketches Church made on his five-month trek through Colombia and Ecuador, seems not to represent any particular place, but rather combines elements from various settings to create an image that is placid and picturesque. The foreground is rich with luxuriantly colored foliage, each leaf of jungle vine and flower painted with eye-catching precision. The figure on a burro, moving slowly across the bridge toward a thatch-roofed hut, provides local color and directs the viewer's eye toward the infinitely receding plane and the chain of mountains and towering bank of clouds on the horizon.
The Indian and the hut occur in a number of other pictures by Church, where they are generally dwarfed by the tropical vegetation and so indicate the insignificance of human endeavor against the grandeur of nature. Here, they are surprisingly large and prominent in the composition, and as such carry a different message. The figure is a witness to the natural splendor spread out before him (and in his gaze at the spectacular vista he mirrors Church's own awe at discovering such scenery); at the same time, enveloped by the same golden light and painted with the same delicate touch, he is a participant in it. This harmonious coexistence between man and nature is, in the romantic language of Church's day, a token of an Edenic world, bountiful and unspoiled.
CT
REFERENCES
David C. Huntington, Frederic Edwin Church (Washington, D.C.: National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, 1966), p. 61.
The painting South American Landscape was one of a pair of pictures Church executed for the collector John Earl Williams; the companion piece, North America (now lost) was an autumnal scene. This painting, presumably based on sketches Church made on his five-month trek through Colombia and Ecuador, seems not to represent any particular place, but rather combines elements from various settings to create an image that is placid and picturesque. The foreground is rich with luxuriantly colored foliage, each leaf of jungle vine and flower painted with eye-catching precision. The figure on a burro, moving slowly across the bridge toward a thatch-roofed hut, provides local color and directs the viewer's eye toward the infinitely receding plane and the chain of mountains and towering bank of clouds on the horizon.
The Indian and the hut occur in a number of other pictures by Church, where they are generally dwarfed by the tropical vegetation and so indicate the insignificance of human endeavor against the grandeur of nature. Here, they are surprisingly large and prominent in the composition, and as such carry a different message. The figure is a witness to the natural splendor spread out before him (and in his gaze at the spectacular vista he mirrors Church's own awe at discovering such scenery); at the same time, enveloped by the same golden light and painted with the same delicate touch, he is a participant in it. This harmonious coexistence between man and nature is, in the romantic language of Church's day, a token of an Edenic world, bountiful and unspoiled.
CT
REFERENCES
David C. Huntington, Frederic Edwin Church (Washington, D.C.: National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, 1966), p. 61.
Exhibition
1966 "Frederic Edwin Church." Organized by the National Collection of Fine Arts. Traveled to: National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, Feb. 12 - Mar. 13; Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY, March 30 - April 30; M. Knoedler and Co., New York, NY, June 1 - June 30, cat. no. 69. 1966 Cummer Gallery of Art, Jacksonville, FL, "Mid-19th Century American Painting from the Collections of Henry M. Fuller and William H. Gerdts." July - Aug., cat. no. 10, ill.
1971 "19th Century American Painting from the Collection of Henry Melville Fuller." Traveled to: Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, Sept. 18 - Oct. 17; Mead Art Building, Amherst College, Amherst, MA, Oct. 27 - Nov. 24, cat. no. 16.
1986 Bowdoin College Art Museum, Brunswick, ME, "Masterpieces from the Currier Gallery of Art." Sept. 11 - Nov. 2.
1993 Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, "Celebrate America! Three Centuries of American Art from the Currier." June 19 - Aug. 29.
1995-1997 "American Art from the Currier Gallery of Art." Organized by the Currier Gallery of Art and the American Federation of Arts. Traveled to: Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL, Dec. 3, 1995 - Jan. 28, 1996; Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, FL, Mar. 15 - Apr. 7, 1996; Art Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke, VA, Aug. 10 - Oct. 13, 1996; The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN, Feb. 2 - Mar. 30, 1997; Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA, Apr. 25 - June 22, 1997; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, July 18 - Sept. 8, 1997, cat. no. 11.
2002 Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH, "19th Century American Paintings: The Henry Melville Fuller Collection." Feb. 2 - March 11.
2005 Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY, "Treasures of Olana: Landscapes by Frederic Edwin Church." June 12 - Sept. 18.
Provenance
Painted for John Earl Williams, 1856 Inherited by the daughters of John Earl Williams
Received by Fanny Mustin (servant to the Williams family) upon the death of the last Williams daughter
Acquired by Leroy Ireland, 1957
Dr. Mark Sheppard
Purchased by Henry Melville Fuller, January 8, 1964
Gift to Currier Gallery of Art, 1981
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