![]() Exhibition There is no photographic record of the 1859 exhibition of The Heart of the Andes its exhibition in 1864 is pictured. The presence of the cross suggests the peaceful coexistence of religion with the landscape. Following this theme, the painting displays the landscape in detail at all scales, from the intricate foliage, birds, and butterflies in the foreground to the all-encompassing portrayal of the natural environments studied by Church. Ruskin emphasized the close observation of nature, and he viewed art, morality, and the natural world as spiritually unified. Ruskin's Modern Painters was a five-volume treatise on art that was, according to American artist Worthington Whittredge, "in every landscape painter's hand" by mid-century. The theory of British critic John Ruskin was also an important influence on Church. The juxtaposition of smooth and irregular forms was an important principle, and is represented in The Heart of the Andes by the rounded hills and pool of water on the one hand, and by the contrasting jagged mountains and rough trees on the other. Ĭhurch's landscape conformed to the aesthetic principles of the picturesque, as propounded by the British theorist William Gilpin, which began with a careful observation of nature enhanced by particular notions about composition and harmony. The play of light on his signature has been interpreted as the artist's statement of man's ability to tame nature-yet the tree appears in poor health compared to the vivid jungle surrounding it. Church's signature appears cut into the bark of the highlighted foreground tree at left. The church, a trademark detail in Church's paintings, is Catholic and Spanish-colonial, and seemingly inaccessible from the viewer's location. ![]() The evidence of human presence is shown by the lightly worn path, a hamlet and church lying in the central plain, and closer to the foreground, two locals are seen before a cross. The snow-capped Mount Chimborazo of Ecuador appears in the distance the viewer's eye is led to it by the darker, closer slopes that decline from right to left. At the center right of the landscape is a shimmering pool served by a waterfall. ![]() The Heart of the Andes is a composite of the South American topography observed during his travels. Church retraced Humboldt's travels in South America. In the second volume of Kosmos, Humboldt described the influence of landscape painting on the study of the natural world-holding that art is among the highest expressions of the love of nature -and challenging artists to portray the "physiognomy" of the landscape. Humboldt was among the last of the great scientific generalists, and his fame became similar to that of Albert Einstein a century later. Church was inspired by the Prussian naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt, and his 1845 treatise Kosmos. In 18, Church traveled in Ecuador and Colombia, financed by businessman Cyrus West Field, who wished to use Church's paintings to lure investors to his South American ventures. It is among Church's most renowned works and an important 19th-century American painting.īackground Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland at the foot of the Chimborazo ( Friedrich Georg Weitsch, 1810) Its first sale, to William Tilden Blodgett, broke a price record for a living American artist. ![]() The Heart of the Andes has been in the collection of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1909. In the details, there are numerous animals and indications of human settlement, including people visiting a cross in the left foreground. Church synthesized numerous topographies of the Andes into his composition, from Mount Chimborazo to a plain and a jungle. The public was often enchanted by the amount of detail portrayed in it, willing to wait in line and pay a 25-cent entrance fee. The exhibition rooms featured special lighting and decorative elements reminiscent of the depicted landscape, and the painting was supported by a floor-standing frame. The painting was later exhibited by itself in other eastern U.S. Measuring more than five feet (1.5 meters) high and almost ten feet (3 meters) wide, its New York City exhibition in 1859 was a sensation, establishing Church as the foremost landscape painter in the United States. ![]() It depicts an idealized landscape in the South American Andes, where Church traveled on two occasions. The Heart of the Andes is a large oil-on-canvas landscape painting by the American artist Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900). Painting by Frederic Edwin Church The Heart of the Andes ![]()
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