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Frederic Edwin Church was an American painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. Church was a focal member of the Hudson River School of landscape painting. Church pursued art from an early age, using family connections to meet important painters. Church studied under Thomas Cole, the leader of the Hudson River School, in Catskill, New York.

Church had early success and in 1848, became the youngest Associate of the National Academy of Design. Church sold his first painting to Hartford’s Wadsworth Athenaeum. Like all of the Hudson River School painters, Church made frequent painting trips. Church went on a sponsored trip to South America, with the mission of attracting investors. Church spent several years in South America painting and exploring the Andes.

When Church returned to the United States he painted “The Heart of the Andes”, which now hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The painting makes a strong impression as it is ten feet in length and five feet high.

For several years Church kept a studio the Wawona Hotel in Yosemite where he had close proximity many of his favorite painting spots in the Yosemite Valley. Church preferred to paint monumental subjects including the Sierra, Yosemite Valley and Vernal Falls. Church’s most reproduced work is “The Last Spike”. The painting portrays seventy-one portraits of people involved with the First Transcontinental Railroad. Church’s masterpiece belongs to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, California.

In 1860 Church moved with his wife and children to a farm in Hudson, but continued to go on exotic vacations as far as the Middle East. Church built a large house on his farm inspired from the Persian mansions he had seen traveling. Church’s uniquely designed home was the perfect perch to paint the wilderness below. Church’s house in now called Olana State Historic Site, and is open to the public.

Church is one of the most important painters of the Hudson River School. Do you think you own a landscape painting by Frederic Edwin Church? Contact us. We are the experts on Frederic Edwin Church.