1858, Frederic Edwin Church, Twilight -- de Young Museum (San Francisco)
From the museum label:
The only student of Thomas Cole, Frederic E. Church favored a detailed realism derived from the close study of nature. As the art critic Henry Tuckerman observed, the setting sun enabled Church to depict the sublime spectacle of nature:
"Few places are better adapted to study sunset than the hills behind Church's house [in Hudson, New York]; the river and the mountains are spread before his gaze under every aspect of cloud, sunshine, and starlight; and twilight there weaves her most pensive hues, while the most glowing tints of the western sky irradiate the far horizon. Church is deeply sensible of the inadequacy of art in the presence of nature. 'I am appalled,' he says, in a recent letter now before me, 'when I look at the magnificent scenery which encircles my clumsy studio, and then glance at the painted oil-cloth on my easel.'"
Henry Tuckerman, "Church," in Book of the Artists, American Artist Life (New York: G. P. Putnam & Son, 1867).
1858, Frederic Edwin Church, Twilight -- de Young Museum (San Francisco)
From the museum label:
The only student of Thomas Cole, Frederic E. Church favored a detailed realism derived from the close study of nature. As the art critic Henry Tuckerman observed, the setting sun enabled Church to depict the sublime spectacle of nature:
"Few places are better adapted to study sunset than the hills behind Church's house [in Hudson, New York]; the river and the mountains are spread before his gaze under every aspect of cloud, sunshine, and starlight; and twilight there weaves her most pensive hues, while the most glowing tints of the western sky irradiate the far horizon. Church is deeply sensible of the inadequacy of art in the presence of nature. 'I am appalled,' he says, in a recent letter now before me, 'when I look at the magnificent scenery which encircles my clumsy studio, and then glance at the painted oil-cloth on my easel.'"
Henry Tuckerman, "Church," in Book of the Artists, American Artist Life (New York: G. P. Putnam & Son, 1867).