Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826-1900). <em>Tropical Scenery</em>, 1873. Oil on canvas, 56 1/2 x 77 3/4 x 5 3/8 in., 128 lb. (143.5 x 197.5 x 13.7 cm, 58.06kg). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 63.150 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 63.150_SL1.jpg)

Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826-1900). Tropical Scenery, 1873. Oil on canvas, 56 1/2 x 77 3/4 x 5 3/8 in., 128 lb. (143.5 x 197.5 x 13.7 cm, 58.06kg). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 63.150 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 63.150_SL1.jpg)

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Did Church travel to Ecuador?

Yes! Church was famous for traveling through the Caribbean and South America in the mid 1800s, seeking idyllic landscapes. This painting was made in a studio, and it's like a "memory piece," based on his reflections on his travels. He made it years after his actual travels.

Tropical Scenery

Frederic Edwin Church

American Art

On View: American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Imagining the New Nation’s Landscape, 1800–1880

In addition to painting the splendor of North American scenery, Frederic Edwin Church traveled through South America in the 1850s and created dramatic Andean landscapes that were inspired by the German scientist Alexander von Humboldt’s 1849 travel accounts. Humboldt urged artists to paint South America in order to study and represent the earth in its most original state. The soft outlines and suffused golden light of this placid Ecuadorian landscape, however, lend it a nostalgic air. Altered perhaps by the veil of memory or the mellowing that comes with age, Church’s later renderings of the area relinquished the scientific purposefulness of his earlier paintings in favor of more generalized views and quieter moods.

ARTIST Frederic Edwin Church, American, 1826-1900

MEDIUM Oil on canvas

Place Made: United States

DATES 1873

DIMENSIONS 56 1/2 x 77 3/4 x 5 3/8 in., 128 lb. (143.5 x 197.5 x 13.7 cm, 58.06kg) (show scale)

SIGNATURE Signed lower center: "F.E. Church / -73"

COLLECTIONS American Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 63.150

CREDIT LINE Dick S. Ramsay Fund

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Imagining the New Nation’s Landscape, 1800–1880

CAPTION Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826-1900). Tropical Scenery, 1873. Oil on canvas, 56 1/2 x 77 3/4 x 5 3/8 in., 128 lb. (143.5 x 197.5 x 13.7 cm, 58.06kg). Brooklyn Museum, Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 63.150 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 63.150_SL1.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 63.150_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph

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Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

Did Church travel to Ecuador?