The Aegean Sea

Artist:: Frederic Edwin Church (American, Hartford, Connecticut 1826–1900 New York)

Date:: ca. 1877

Medium:: Oil on canvas

Dimensions:: 54 in. × 84 1/4 in. (137.2 × 214 cm)

Classification:: Paintings

Credit Line:: Bequest of Mrs. William H. Osborn, 1902

Accession Number:: 02.23

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 760

Church toured the Near East and Europe in 1867–69. "The Aegean Sea," his final large-scale picture, is a “composite” landscape, based on sketches and photographs the artist had made in disparate locations: on the left are elements of the carved-rock city of Petra, in present-day Jordan; on the right, ancient Roman columns seen in Syria; and in the distance, a mosque suggesting Constantinople and classical ruins evoking the Acropolis in Athens. A double rainbow provides brilliant illumination for the idealized scene. These Old World sites, hallowed by history and the Bible, helped to confirm Church’s beliefs at a time when new scientific discoveries challenged his faith.

Signature: [at lower left]: F.E. CHURCH

William Henry Osborn, New York (1878–d. 1894); his wife, Mrs. William H. Osborn, New York (1894–d. 1902)

Essays
Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900)

Timelines
The United States and Canada, 1800–1900 A.D.

American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born between 1816 and 1845
"Jonathan Sturges, W.H. Osborn, and William Church Osborn: A Chapter in American Art Patronage": Metropolitan Museum Journal, v. 43 (2008)

Department

American Paintings and Sculpture (5,328)

Artist / Maker / Culture

Frederic Edwin Church (5)

Object Type / Material

Canvas (4,760)

Oil paintings (3,002)