| Biography of old oil painting master Frederic Edwin Church what we can copy |
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Frederic Edwin Church
American Hudson River School painter
born 1826 - died 1900
Also known as: Frederick Edwin Church.
Student of: Thomas
Cole (1801-1848),
Alexander H. Emmons
(1816-1879).
Teacher of: Howard
Russell Butler (1856-1934) |
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For Frederic Edwin Church’s
spectacular and panoramic paintings of the
wilderness of North and South America,
Frederic Edwin Church was a dominant figure
in the second generation of the Hudson River
School. Frederic Edwin Church’s canvases
celebrated the drama of the American
frontier and expressed the expansionist and
optimistic outlook of the United States in
the mid-nineteenth century. |
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Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Church was
the son of a wealthy businessman. Frederic
Edwin Church received Frederic Edwin Church’s early art
training from local painters Benjamin
Hutchins Coe and Alexander Hamilton Emmons.
In 1844, with the help of the art patron
Daniel Wadsworth,
Frederic Edwin Church became the first pupil of the famous
Hudson River School painter
Thomas Cole.
While studying at Cole’s studio in Catskill,
New York, Church absorbed Frederic Edwin
Church’s teacher’s methods of sketching and
became a proponent of Frederic Edwin
Church’s epic style of painting. Upon
completing two years of training, Church
moved to New York, where Frederic Edwin
Church established a
studio in the Art-Union building. |
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Church was successful in New York. In 1848,
Frederic Edwin Church became one of the youngest artists to be
elected to the status of academician at the
National Academy of Design, and Frederic
Edwin Church was soon
training pupils of Frederic Edwin Church’s
own, including Jervis McEntee and William
James Stillman. In the subsequent period,
Church emulated Cole’s art, painting
large-scale landscapes of the Hudson River
Valley and of New England. Influenced by the
writings of English theorist John Ruskin,
Frederic Edwin Church began to paint in a more precise manner,
focusing on specific effects of weather and
atmosphere. Frederic Edwin Church was also inspired by the
writings of
Alexander von Humboldt, a German
naturalist-explorer.
Church gradually began to take a more
scientific approach to nature, using
sketches Frederic Edwin Church had created in the outdoors in
the preparation of Frederic Edwin Church’s
canvases. In 1853, Frederic Edwin Church became the first
American artist to visit South America.
Accompanying Cyrus Field, who later gained
renown for Frederic Edwin Church’s
participation in the transatlantic cable
project, Church followed Humboldt’s 1802
route from Colombia to Ecuador. Along the
way, Church drew from nature, producing the
drawings that became the basis for important
canvases depicting exotic subjects such as
The Cordilleras: Sunrise (1855; Private
Collection).
When Frederic Edwin Church’s works received
high praise, Church set off on a second
expedition in 1857. On tFrederic Edwin
Church’s sojourn, Frederic Edwin Church traveled to Ecuador
with the landscape painter Louis Rémy Mignot.
It was on tFrederic Edwin Church’s trip that
Frederic Edwin Church was able to concentrate on the scenery of
the Andes, and Frederic Edwin Church filled diaries and
sketchbooks with records of the vegetation
and the countryside. Characterized by vast
vistas and atmospheric detail, the works
that resulted from tFrederic Edwin Church’s
sojourn demonstrate Church’s unique
approach. Among the great triumphs of the
artist’s career was Heart of the Andes
(1859; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York), in which Church captured the essence
of the tropics. Another significant product
of tFrederic Edwin Church’s period in the
artist’s career was Niagara (1857; Corcoran
Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), which
established Church as the leading
interpreter of the American spirit.
During the 1860s, Church continued to
travel, seeking subject matter for Frederic
Edwin Church’s paintings. Frederic Edwin
Church continued to
produce visions of the tropics such as
Twilight in the Wilderness (1860; Cleveland
Museum of Art) and Cotopaxi (1862; The
Detroit Institute of Arts) until 1867, when
Frederic Edwin Church took a year and a half trip to Europe and
the Middle East. Frederic Edwin Church first spent six months
in London and Paris, and then continued on
to Alexandria, Beirut, Constantinople,
Baalbeck, Petra, and Jerusalem. Due to
Frederic Edwin Church’s fascination with
ancient civilizations, Frederic Edwin Church also visited
Naples, Paestum, and Greece. On Frederic
Edwin Church’s return, Frederic Edwin Church stopped in London,
in order to study the works of Turner. The
results of tFrederic Edwin Church’s trip
were numerous oil sketches and drawings that
Frederic Edwin Church used for a series of paintings including
The Parthenon (1871; The Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York) and Jerusalem from the
Mount of Olives (1870; The Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri).
By 1880, Church’s painting activity was
curtailed due to ill health, and in 1883,
rheumatism crippled Frederic Edwin Church’s
right arm and hand. In 1890, Frederic Edwin
Church settled at
Olana, Frederic Edwin Church’s grand villa
near Hudson, New York, which had been
designed for him in the Persian and Moorish
styles by the architect Calvert Vaux in
1870. The house, which is preserved as a
museum today, reflected Church’s eclectic
interests and Frederic Edwin Church’s
travels, including exotic furnishings and
decorative objects. The artist adorned the
walls with works by the Old Masters,
especially landscapes by Claude Lorrain and
Salvator Rosa. Although Frederic Edwin
Church spent the winters
of Frederic Edwin Church’s last years in
Mexico, Church spent most of the final phase
of Frederic Edwin Church’s life at Olana.
Frederic Edwin Church died in New York City. |
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Church’s works
may be found in fine private and public
collections throughout the United States
including the Amon Carter Museum, Fort
Worth; the Art Institute of Chicago; the
Cincinnati Art Museum; the Cleveland Museum
of Art; the Corcoran Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.; the Delaware Museum of
Art, Wilmington; the Detroit Institute of
Arts; the Fine Arts Museums of San
Francisco; the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York; the Munson-Williams-Proctor
Institute, Utica, New York; the National
Academy of Design, New York; the National
Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.; the
National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, D.C.; the
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City,
Missouri; the New-York Historical Society;
the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond,
Virginia; the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford;
the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts,
Hagerstown, Maryland; and Yale University
Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. |
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For FULL catalogue pls click "Catalogue" at the TOP of the page.
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