When Frederic Edwin Church was born, in 1826,the Rcverend Sydney Smith had taunted not long before in the Edinburgh Reviews,"In the four corners of the globe, who reads an American book? or goes to an American play or looks at an American picture or statue?" Galling as it was to the intelligentsia of the young nation, America had slight standing in the international art world. Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley--both products of the prerevolutionary environment of the American colonies, and later both at the center of the London art scene--were regarded not as American but as essentially English painters. Gilbert Stuart and Washington Allston, each of them aged and busier talking than working, approached invisibility as far as the sophisticated climate of Europe was concerned. Overall, American artists, relatively few in number and concentrated for the most part in the cities of the East Coast, were relegated to international obscurity.

When Frederic Edwin Church was born, in 1826,the Rcverend Sydney Smith had taunted not long before in the Edinburgh Reviews,"In the four corners of the globe, who reads an American book? or goes to an American play or looks at an American picture or statue?" Galling as it was to the intelligentsia of the young nation, America had slight standing in the international art world. Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley--both products of the prerevolutionary environment of the American colonies, and later both at the center of the London art scene--were regarded not as American but as essentially English painters. Gilbert Stuart and Washington Allston, each of them aged and busier talking than working, approached invisibility as far as the sophisticated climate of Europe was concerned. Overall, American artists, relatively few in number and concentrated for the most part in the cities of the East Coast, were relegated to international obscurity.

Prcfacc

1. Boyhood in Hartford

2. Study with Thomas Cole

3. Beginning a Career in New York City

4. Youthful Success

5. Humboldt's Gift and a Trip to South America

6. Fame and New Directions

7. Niagara

8. A Second Trip to South America

9. The Heart of the Andes

10. Newfoundland and Labrador

11. Engagement to Marry and a Return to New England

12. Marriage, The Icebergs, and the Civil War

13. Cotopaxi and Starting a Family

14. Chimborazo, the Farm, Life in New York City, and Aurora Borcalis

15. Family Tragedy and Recovery in Jamaica

16. Rebuilding a Family and Pilgrimage to the Near East

17. Lebanon and Syria

18. A European Sojourn

19. Present at the Creation: Olana and the

Metropolitan Museum of A rt

20. Late Works and Other Interests

21. Discovery of Mexico, Old Age

22. Final Years and Decline and Revival of Reputation

Chronology

Notes

References

Acknowledgments

Index