Artist: Frederic Edwin Church Place/date of birth: Hartford, Connecticut 1826 Place/date of death: New York, New York 1900 Title: Rainy Season in the Tropics Date of completion: 1866 Materials: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 56 1/4 x 84 1/4 inches Signed and dated lower right: F.E. Church/1866 Collection: Mildred Anna Williams Collection Accession number: 1970.9 Introduction More than any other American painter of the nineteenth century, Frederic Edwin Church popularized panoramic landscapes of epic proportions. At the height of his career, the unveiling of one of Church's paintings would be reported in newspapers with the same excited interest as the opening of a new movie might be covered today. Discussion Rainy Season in the Tropics depicts two separate places. The Ecuadorian Andes fill most of the canvas; at right the tropical forest represents a scene based on a sketch Church made during a trip to Jamaica in 1865. There has been some debate about the inspiration for Rainy Season in the Tropics. Some scholars link this painting to the end of the Civil War; they believe that the rainbow connects the two landscapes, thereby symbolizing hope for the renewal and reunification of a divided America. Other scholars argue that the work is a response to the artist's sorrow at the death of two of his children in 1865. Both of these interpretations may be partly true, but we know from Church's sketches that he planned a large picture of a South American landscape with a double rainbow in 1863 -- a date well before he knew the outcome of the war or that his children would die. The meaning of Rainy Season in the Tropics is probably more general: it may simply represent the hope of regeneration following a storm and the divine promise symbolized by the rainbow. It is interesting to note how the hindsight that historians possess can be reflected in their interpretations of art. Church's interest in South American scenery was inspired by the writings of Alexander von Humboldt, a German naturalist. During his travels to South America, Humboldt was struck by the tremendous range of climates in Ecuador: icy mountaintops, grassy plains, and steamy jungles. Humboldt saw this diversity as evidence of the divine presence in the creation of the world. South America was a kind of Garden of Eden to which all other climates of the worl -- and thus life itself -- could be linked. Looking Closely Earlier in his career, Church painted an image of Niagara Falls that also included a rainbow. When John Ruskin, a famous art critic of the period, saw Niagara for the first time, he refused to believe that the rainbow was painted. His reaction was related by a fellow art critic: Ruskin, when he first saw Church's Niagara, pointed out an effect of light upon water which he declared he had often seen in nature, especially among the Swiss waterfalls, but never before on canvas; and so perfect is the optical illusion in the picture that the author went to the window and examined the glass, evidently attributing the prismatic bow to the refraction of the sun. Style Church was known for the painstaking accuracy of his paintings. He studied natural history extensively. He made several trips to South America and produced detailed drawings of the landscape, plant and animal life, atmospheric effects, buildings, and local residents. In his New York studio, Church would compose his finished paintings using the sketches from his travels, photographs, and illustrated books from his library. In this piece the palm trees on the left and the mountains on the right serve as a frame that draws the eye down to the misty valley below. Meanwhile, the rainbow takes the eye upward, giving the work an appealing symmetry. Artist Frederic Church was the son of a wealthy Connecticut businessman. Church's early paintings were primarily New England landscapes. From an early age he showed a remarkable talent for drawing and had the distinction of being the only pupil accepted by Thomas Cole, America's leading landscape painter at the time. Links to American History Curriculum
SLIDE 18
RAINY SEASON IN THE TROPICS
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