Frederic Edwin Church, Study for “The Heart of the Andes,” 1858, oil on canvas, 10 1/4 x 18 1/4 in., Olana State Historic Site, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, OL.1981.47.A.B.
About this Artwork
Church’s final compositional study for Heart of the Andes suggests the vast range of information Humboldt had included in his Naturgemälde map. Church’s painting, like Humboldt’s map, includes five distinct biomes, from the tropical Amazon River basin to the glaciated summit of the Andean Cordillera. Church kept this study and hung it at Olana.