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Frederik ChurchAmerican landscape painter, romanticist
Date of Birth: 04.05.1826
Country:  USA |
Content:
- Biography of Frederic Church
- Early Career and Success
- Travels and Artistic Achievements
- Personal Life and Later Years
- Artistic Style and Legacy
Biography of Frederic Church
Early Life and EducationFrederic Church was an American landscape painter and a prominent figure of the Hudson River School. He was born in a wealthy family in Hartford. At the age of 18, he began his studies under Thomas Cole, one of the leading American artists of the time, in Catskill, New York.
Early Career and Success
In May 1848, Church was offered a solo exhibition at the National Academy of Design, after which he sold one of his paintings to the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, the oldest public art museum in the United States. Later that year, Church opened his studio in New York City and took on his first student, William Stilman. He spent a significant amount of time working outdoors, creating studies from spring to autumn and completing and selling his works during winter.
Travels and Artistic Achievements
In 1853 and again in 1857, Church traveled to South America, specifically Ecuador, where he created a series of mountain landscapes that are considered the quintessential works of American Romanticism. One of his paintings from his travels, "Heart of the Andes" (1859, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), was sold for $10,000, the highest amount ever paid for a painting by an American artist at that time. From 1854 to 1856, he also traveled to Canada and New England, including Mount Desert Island in Maine, now Acadia National Park. During this time, he also visited Niagara Falls. Church often exhibited alongside other landscape painters, such as Thomas Cole, Asher Brown Durand, John Frederick Kensett, and Jasper Francis Cropsey, forming what became known as the Hudson River School.
Personal Life and Later Years
In 1860, Frederic Church married Isabella Carns and purchased a farm on the Hudson River in New York. They had two children who tragically died from diphtheria at the ages of five and six, but they went on to have four more children. In 1867, Church embarked on a trip to Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. In 1870, he built an eclectic-style mansion on his estate in Olana. Although an architect was hired, Church actively participated in the design process. Today, Church's estate is a State Historic Site and open to visitors. In the last thirty years of his life, Church's rheumatism prevented him from painting large-scale canvases. His legacy from this period consists of numerous studies executed at his estates in Olana and Millinocket Lake, Maine, as well as in Mexico, where he spent the winter of 1882.
Artistic Style and Legacy
Frederic Church's works predominantly depict monumental landscapes, often painted in dramatic red tones. He made significant contributions to the development of American landscape painting and is celebrated as one of the most important figures of the Hudson River School.
