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Heart of the Andes, 1859
Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900)
Oil on canvas; 66 1/8 x 119 1/4 in. (168 x 302.9 cm)
Bequest of Margaret E. Dows, 1909 (09.95)
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Description
In the mid-nineteenth century, a new generation of American landscape painters began to focus on the grandeur of the vast American continents, both North and South. Frederic Church was a member of this generation and was the most famous American artist of his day. Church traveled to South America, where he made studies that would become the basis for Heart of the Andes, an all-encompassing, Romantic vision of nature. In reality, no single view like this exists. Church compressed a hundred miles of landscape into one scene, setting the lush vibrancy of the equatorial jungle against forbidding mountains that recede into majestic, snow-capped peaks.
When Heart of the Andes was first exhibited in 1859, it was shown in a darkened room, illuminated by concealed gas flames and surrounded by tropical plants. Visitors used opera glasses to study the extraordinary detail of the plants, flowers, and birds. During its tour of the United States and England in the following years, tens of thousands of people came to marvel at the painting and to take an imaginary expedition through its wild and changing terrain.
View more highlights from the Museum's Department of American Paintings and Sculpture.
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