Cotopaxi

Frederic Edwin Church, Cotopaxi, 1855, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Frank R. McCoy, 1965.12
Copied Frederic Edwin Church, Cotopaxi, 1855, oil on canvas, 28 x 42 in. (71.1 x 106.8 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Frank R. McCoy, 1965.12
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Artwork Details

Title
Cotopaxi
Artist
Date
1855
Location
Dimensions
28 x 42 in. (71.1 x 106.8 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Frank R. McCoy
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Landscape — phenomenon — volcano
  • Landscape — tropic
  • Landscape — mountain — Mount Cotopaxi
  • Landscape — Ecuador
  • Architecture Exterior — domestic — house
Object Number
1965.12
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1965.12

Artwork Description

Frederic Church was an ambitious painter and enthusiastic amateur scientist. He had read Darwin's books and Alexander von Humboldt's descriptions of Cotopaxi,"the most dreadful volcano...its explosions most frequent and disastrous."The fabled Ecuadorian mountain provided both a poetic symbol of God's creation and an exciting window into the planet's natural history. Geology was a new science in the nineteenth century, and Church was among those who believed that volcanoes offered clues to the age and origins of the earth.

On his first visit to Ecuador, the artist waited an entire day near the hacienda pictured here, hoping that the clouds would part to reveal the peak. American critics complained that Church's paintings of the volcano did not capture the soft atmospheric haze that they were used to seeing in landscapes. Those who had never traveled to the high country of the Andes did not understand that in the thin, clear air, Cotopaxi's icy flanks gleamed just as Church had painted them.

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006