The Heart of the Andes TheMET(7)
Frederic Edwin Church American 1826-1900
Heart of the Andes , 1859
Oil on canvas
Inspired by the writings of the German naturalist Alexander von Humbodlt ( 1769-1859), Church traveled to South America in 1853 and 1857. Heart of the Andes was synthesized from scores of pencil and oil sketches Church made in Ecuador and represents the full climatic range—from tropical to temperate to fridgid—Humbodlt had observed there a half century earlier. The painting’s original presentation accommodated both its wondrous botanical detail and its continental sweep: Church displayed it in a massive windowlike frame ( now lost) and advised visitors to view it through opera glasses, the better to share the artist’s adventure. It now appears in a frame designed by Church for another painting.
Bequest of Margaret E. Dows, 1909
09.95
From the placard: Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Heart of the Andes TheMET(7)
Frederic Edwin Church American 1826-1900
Heart of the Andes , 1859
Oil on canvas
Inspired by the writings of the German naturalist Alexander von Humbodlt ( 1769-1859), Church traveled to South America in 1853 and 1857. Heart of the Andes was synthesized from scores of pencil and oil sketches Church made in Ecuador and represents the full climatic range—from tropical to temperate to fridgid—Humbodlt had observed there a half century earlier. The painting’s original presentation accommodated both its wondrous botanical detail and its continental sweep: Church displayed it in a massive windowlike frame ( now lost) and advised visitors to view it through opera glasses, the better to share the artist’s adventure. It now appears in a frame designed by Church for another painting.
Bequest of Margaret E. Dows, 1909
09.95
From the placard: Metropolitan Museum of Art