Church painted this at his studio, Olana, in Upstate New York, two years after his trip to Maine. This highly detailed painting is a composite piece based on sketches of landscapes made while visiting Mount Katahdin in Maine. As was his custom, and the custom of his teacher, Thomas Cole, trees stand in the foreground flanking the view on the right and left. The water along the bottom of the canvas reflects the bright pinks, purples, and grays present in the clouds above. The mountains loom in the distance, stark against the bright yellow sky. In this painting, Church paints a brilliant sunset. This is one of Church’s most famous landscapes. This gorgeous oil on canvas painting, titled “Twilight in the Wilderness,” is by the American Hudson River School artist, Frederic Edwin Church, from 1860. “Twilight in the Wilderness”įor today, one of the great Hudson River School artists. March 23 rd, 2017.“Twilight in the Wilderness”, Frederic Edwin Church, 1860, oil on canvas. March 13, 2017.Ĭole, Mark, “Twilight in the Wilderness: A Close Look at an American Masterpiece,” Cleveland Art. “Depicting a Sublime Wilderness,” Art History. Thus it is plausible to think that the transition of this wilderness scene into the night represents America’s transition into conflict.ĭunn, Sarah. It was not a secret that people knew war was inevitable between the North and the South. The painting was finished in 1860, right near the cusp of the Civil War. In particular, some link the idea of the twilight or a transition in the wilderness, as America’s transition into the Civil War. Some who view this painting believe it has a message hidden within, separate from the idea of the sublime. Like the positioning of the mountains, the use of light and dark, allows church to illuminate aspects of foreground he wanted to show and darken areas of the background that he wanted to make obscure. In particular, Church’s use of light asserts the meaning that wilderness is vast yet obscure, beautiful, but untouchable. The colors also add to Church’s message of nature’s sublimity. Church was in tune with nature and this sunset is an example of how he emulated the scenes he saw. The exactness to nature is a key factor when Church chose his colors for the painting. The sunset is cloaking nightfall, as the last hour of sunlight pierces through the clouds and shimmers on the lake. We see the amber glow of the sunset peering through the clouds, as well as a low orange-yellow glow in the background. It is clear, in the color selection, that Church is utilizing the sun as the only source of light for his painting. The color schemes and artistic techniques utilized by Church add an aspect of scientific realism to his paintings. It’s the feeling that the mountains continue infinitely into spaces humans cannot and will not be able to see that creates the images sublimity. This relationship gives the viewer the sense of America’s pristine and vast natural landscape that is both known and unknown. The mountains however are untouched, large, and mysterious. The fine details in the foreground show what we, as the viewer, would be able to interact with. The effect gives the onlooker a unique way of viewing the painting, as well as adding to the idea of the sublime. In this painting, Church positions the large mountain range behind the finer details visible in the foreground. In his other works, such as Niagara, the sheer size of the falls and the drop of the horizon in background give the viewer a true sense of nature’s size. One of Church’s tendencies in his work is to focus on the sublime of nature in comparison to the insignificant man. Yet at the same time one can overlook these small details while focusing on the vast landscape in front of them. The progression each one of Church’s scenes goes through ensures that the finest details are represented. The sketches and oil drawings that Church compiles over his stay, wherever he is, allows him to replicate scenes in nature in a unique, yet scientific way. Like many of Churches masterpieces, Twilight in the Wilderness was created after church had traveled and documented the particular site. When Fredric Edwin Church completed this painting in his New York Studio, he was envisioning Mount Katahdin in Maine 2 years prior. Marlatt Fund 1965.233 The Cleveland Museum of Art
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