Kirjahaku

A beautiful overview of fascinating paintings of the classical world and the Holy Land by a beloved American artist Frederic Church (1826–1900), one of the leading painters of 19th-century America and the Hudson River School, also journeyed around the globe to find fresh inspiration for his highly detailed compositions. Among Church’s lesser-known masterpieces are his paintings of the Middle East, Italy, and Greece, produced in the late 1860s through late 1870s, which explore themes of human history and achievement. Taking a closer look at this geographical and thematic shift in Church’s practice, this handsome book brings together the artist’s major paintings of Athens, Rome, Jerusalem, and the surrounding region. The essays concentrate on a set of six major paintings of architectural and archaeological marvels; one essay also spotlights Olana, Church’s home in New York State, which reflects the influence of Middle Eastern design. This impressive volume stands apart in its new approach to the artist’s work and its quest to determine why and how this quintessentially American figure was drawn to scenery and themes from the other side of the globe.Distributed for the Detroit Institute of ArtsExhibition Schedule:Detroit Institute of Arts (10/22/17–01/15/18)Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (02/08/18–05/13/18)Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT (06/03/18–08/26/18)

Frederic Church (1826–1900), the most celebrated painter in the United States during the mid-19th century, created monumental landscapes of North and South America, the Arctic, and the Middle East. These paintings were unsurpassed in their attention to detail, yet the significance of this pictorial approach has remained largely unexplored. In this important reconsideration of Church’s works, Jennifer Raab offers the first sustained examination of the aesthetics of detail that fundamentally shaped 19th-century American landscape painting. Moving between historical context and close readings of famous canvases—including Niagara, The Heart of the Andes, and The Icebergs—Raab argues that Church’s art challenged an earlier model of painting based on symbolic unity, revealing a representation of nature with surprising connections to scientific discourses of the time. The book traces Church’s movement away from working in oil on canvas to shaping the physical landscape of Olana, his self-designed estate on the Hudson River, a move that allowed the artist to rethink scale and process while also engaging with pressing ecological questions. Beautifully illustrated with dramatic spreads and striking details of Church’s works, Frederic Church: The Art and Science of Detail offers a profoundly new understanding of this canonical artist.

Frederic Church, the leader of the much-loved group of artists known as the Hudson River School, made his name as a painter of monumental landscapes in the mid-1800s, helping to develop our vision of landscape and shaping the cultural identity of America. He applied his artistic talent to the house and property that he named Olana, known today as Olana State Historic Site and located in the heart of the beautiful Hudson River Valley. The 250-acre naturalistic landscape surrounding the house is a work of art in itself, and the magnificent views beyond Olana were an essential part of Church s composition, which he carefully designed with an artist s eye to the property s 360-degree views of neighbouring hills, valleys, the Hudson River, and distant mountains. Church was an observer of the cosmos, and Olana, set in the centre of the Hudson River Valley, was his laboratory of observation of all of nature. Spectacular photography by Larry Lederman of Olana, its landscape and house, inside and out, illustrates one of Church s greatest works of art. The images, many taken especially for this book, have been shot in all seasons and all weather, and include panoramic and aerial views, sunsets, detail shots of both the house and landscape, as well as interior views of the house. Essays will delve into Church and his inspirations and motivations, illuminating not only the estate he built but also his work as an artist.