Portrait of Frederic Edwin Church

Frederic Edwin Church Painting Reproductions 3 of 3

1826-1900

American Hudson River School Painter

Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 - April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters.

The wealth of Church's father allowed him to pursue his interest in art from a very early age. At eighteen years of age, Church became the pupil of Thomas Cole in Palenville, New York. He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Design five years later, in 1849. Soon after, he sold his first major work to Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum.

Church settled in New York where he taught his first pupil, William James Stillman. From the spring to autumn each year Church would travel, often by foot, sketching. He returned each winter to paint and to sell his work.

Church became known for painting colossal views, often of exotic locations. His painting "Heart of the Andes", now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, measures over five feet high and nearly ten feet in length. Church unveiled the painting to an astonished public in New York City in 1859. He installed the work in a specially-lit room with curtains and palm fronds, and charged the public admission to view it. The painting was an instant success. He eventually sold it for $10,000, at that time the highest price ever paid for a work by a living American artist.

In 1860 Church bought a farm in Hudson, New York and married Isabel Carnes. Both Church's first son and daughter died in March, 1863 of diphtheria, but he and his wife started a new family with the birth of Frederic junior in 1865.

When he and his wife had a family of four children, they began to travel together. In 1867 they visited Europe and the Middle East, allowing Church to return to painting larger works.

Before leaving on that trip, Church purchased the eighteen acres (73,000 m2) on the hilltop above his Hudson farm - land he had long wanted because of its magnificent views of the Hudson River and the Catskills. In 1870 he began the construction of "Olana" on that site. This highly personal and eclectic castle incorporated many of the design ideas that he had acquired in the Middle East. Olana, now owned by the nonprofit Olana Partnership and administered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is a New York State historic site open to the public. While Church continued to paint monumental landscapes at Olana, he also enjoyed painting small, spontaneous sketches of clouds and sunsets from his hilltop home.

59 Frederic Edwin Church Paintings

The Mountains of Ecuador, 1855 by Frederic Edwin Church | Painting Reproduction

The Mountains of Ecuador 1855

Oil Painting
$3561
Canvas Print
$50.00
SKU: CFE-12274
Frederic Edwin Church
Original Size: 62 x 93.3 cm
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, USA

Scene in the Catskills, 1851 by Frederic Edwin Church | Painting Reproduction

Scene in the Catskills 1851

Oil Painting
$3466
Canvas Print
$51.50
SKU: CFE-12275
Frederic Edwin Church
Original Size: 89.5 x 131.4 cm
Public Collection

The Iceberg, c.1875 by Frederic Edwin Church | Painting Reproduction

The Iceberg c.1875

Oil Painting
$2309
Canvas Print
$96.02
SKU: CFE-12276
Frederic Edwin Church
Original Size: 55.9 x 68.6 cm
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, USA

Mountain Ktaadn, 1853 by Frederic Edwin Church | Painting Reproduction

Mountain Ktaadn 1853

Oil Painting
$2980
Canvas Print
$82.13
SKU: CFE-12277
Frederic Edwin Church
Original Size: 92.1 x 140.3 cm
Yale University Art Gallery, Connecticut, USA

View of Cotopaxi, 1867 by Frederic Edwin Church | Painting Reproduction

View of Cotopaxi 1867

Oil Painting
$2107
Canvas Print
$49.98
SKU: CFE-12278
Frederic Edwin Church
Original Size: 27.9 x 45.7 cm
Yale University Art Gallery, Connecticut, USA

Coast Scene, Mount Desert, 1863 by Frederic Edwin Church | Painting Reproduction

Coast Scene, Mount Desert 1863

Oil Painting
$2980
Canvas Print
$56.60
SKU: CFE-12279
Frederic Edwin Church
Original Size: 92 x 122 cm
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, USA

Apple Blossoms at Olana, 1870 by Frederic Edwin Church | Painting Reproduction

Apple Blossoms at Olana 1870

Oil Painting
$1307
SKU: CFE-16980
Frederic Edwin Church
Original Size: 30 x 46.3 cm
Public Collection

Abandoned Skiff, 1850 by Frederic Edwin Church | Painting Reproduction

Abandoned Skiff 1850

Oil Painting
$1462
Canvas Print
$49.98
SKU: CFE-17551
Frederic Edwin Church
Original Size: 28 x 43.2 cm
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain

Autumn, 1875 by Frederic Edwin Church | Painting Reproduction

Autumn 1875

Oil Painting
$656
Canvas Print
$49.98
SKU: CFE-17552
Frederic Edwin Church
Original Size: 39.4 x 61 cm
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain

Cross in the Wilderness, 1857 by Frederic Edwin Church | Painting Reproduction

Cross in the Wilderness 1857

Oil Painting
$881
Canvas Print
$50.00
SKU: CFE-17553
Frederic Edwin Church
Original Size: 41.3 x 61.5 cm
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain

The Falls of Tequendama, Near Bogotá, New Granada, 1854 by Frederic Edwin Church | Painting Reproduction

The Falls of Tequendama, Near Bogotá, New Granada 1854

Oil Painting
$4380
Canvas Print
$60.59
SKU: CFE-19706
Frederic Edwin Church
Original Size: 153.5 x 122 cm
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio, USA

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