Frederic Church’s landscapes

In this new post, we will analyze some of the best works of the American painter Frederic Church.

Frederic Church’s landscapes are radiant, showcasing his mastery in this discipline. Not only did he focus on landscapes within his own country (the United States), but he also traveled to South America. In this new analysis, we will discuss his work “Aurora Borealis.”

He was part of the Hudson River School, a group of American landscape painters from the late 19th century, where the pictorial theme was strongly linked to the spiritual and religious. Within this creative school of painters, they sought to reflect the presence of God on Earth through their landscapes.

They shared a common admiration for the grandiose and spectacular, the wildness of nature, and a significant dose of patriotic pride (“we paint the most beautiful country in the world” seemed to be their motto).

In this case, with his work “Aurora Borealis” (displayed at the Smithsonian Museum), Church attempts to capture this moment, which truly holds a magical, mythical essence for any individual, regardless of belief.

And if we imbue it with a more religious or spiritual significance, the observer may have felt a connection to some form of divinity.

We can observe that Church distances himself and chooses a high vantage point to have a broader panoramic view of the landscape. This is primarily evidenced by the size of the ship depicted. It gives us an idea of the monumentality of the situation, of the immensity of space. Perhaps he wants to portray humans as something small in the face of God’s creation or the magnificence of Nature.

We have a darker mass here on the left, which is a mountainous mass. Then we have the ice and the reflections of the aurora on it.

The aurora is represented in the form of an arc. This coincides with the fact that he distances himself to achieve a greater perspective regarding the aurora. The viewer is positioned more below the aurora, so the aurora does not take on this semi-circular shape at its base.

The artist takes advantage of this by delineating a well-defined upper area, a middle zone, and then marking the interest again in the lower part.

The beam of light somehow closes the visual composition, creating a visual journey that, in a way, descends back towards the area of the ice and the ship.

Although this may seem like a vanishing point and the eye may tend to exit, I interpret that the eye traverses the most important part of the artwork, then descends, returns, and encounters the ship.

This school of painters were masters in landscape painting. Their level of technique was truly impressive.

Returning to the Aurora, we observe the combined or complementary use of low and high palette. Low palette refers to everything that could be considered as the background or where the most figurative part of the work is based (the mountain, the sea, all the darker parts).

Regarding the high palette, it encompasses light and pure colors. The red of the Aurora is very intense, blending with the greens, also with a strong intensity. To achieve harmony in the artwork, Church reflects this by again emphasizing those very strong greens and slightly diffused reds.

When colors become very pure or extreme, we can discuss high and low palettes when dealing with more blended or mixed colors, as well as when the tone is lower.

I hope this article has been useful to you. Feel free to leave your comments or opinions about these great landscape artists.

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