Frederic Edwin Church

Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900) became the most celebrated American landscape painter of his generation and the central figure of the Hudson River School. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, to a wealthy family, he studied under Thomas Cole in the Catskill Mountains from 1844 to 1846. In 1849, at just 23, Church became the youngest artist ever elected to the National Academy of Design. His seven-foot-wide "Niagara" (1857) stunned audiences in New York and London with its combination of breadth and uncanny realism, establishing him as the most famous painter in America.

The naturalist Alexander von Humboldt's writings on South America inspired Church to travel to Ecuador in 1853 and 1857, painting tropical volcanoes and mountains. His ten-foot canvas "The Heart of the Andes" (1859) became the most popular display of a single artwork during the Civil War era, attracting 12,000 visitors in three weeks at its New York premiere. People paid admission to see it, viewing through opera glasses as if gazing into an actual window on the Andes. Church also traveled widely in Europe and the Middle East, painting icebergs, ancient ruins, and Mediterranean views. Crippling rheumatism in his hands forced him to abandon painting after 1877. He spent his final years at Olana, his Persian-inspired estate overlooking the Hudson River, which is now a museum and state historic site. His works hang at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.