View of Cotopaxi

1857

Frederic Edwin Church
American, 1826–1900

Frederic Edwin Church produced at least ten finished paintings of the Ecuadorian volcano Cotopaxi. Completed in his studio just before his second visit to Latin America, View of Cotopaxi incorporates the scientific, religious, and political themes that preoccupied the artist. He ascribed to a religious view of the world that looked to nature and science as evidence of God’s role as creator. For Church and many 19th-century viewers, the lush rain forest of Latin America was likened to the Garden of Eden, and the volcano, because of its creative and destructive force, was understood in terms of divine power.

On View: American Art, Gallery 171

Artist: Frederic Edwin Church
Title: View of Cotopaxi
Origin: United States
Date: 1857
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed, lower right: "F. E. Church '57"
Dimensions: 62.2 × 92.7 cm (24 1/2 × 36 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Jennette Hamlin in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Dana Webster
Reference Number: 1919.753

Chicago Press and Tribune, June 1, 1859, 2.
“The Art Exhibition,” Chicago Tribune, Oct. 27, 1863, 2.
“The Art Exhibition of the Sanitary Fair: First Alcove,” Chicago Daily Journal, Oct. 29, 1863, 4.
Handbook of Paintings and Drawings, The Art Institute of Chicago, pt. II (Art Institute of Chicago, 1920), 56, no. 547.
The Bulletin of The Art Institute of Chicago 14 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1920), 28.
Guide to the Paintings and Drawings (Art Institute of Chicago, 1925), 130, no. 547.
Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 45 (Sept 1951), 45 (ill.).
“Art in Chicago: Americans Reinstalled,” Art Digest (Oct. 1951), ill.
David C. Huntington, Frederic Edwin Church, 1826–1900: Painter of the Adamic New World Myth (Ph.D. Diss., Yale University, 1960), 107.
David Hanks, “American Paintings at The Art Institute of Chicago,” Nov. 1973, 902.
Judith A. Barter et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 188–90, no. 86.

Chicago, Burch’s Building, Chicago Exhibition of Fine Arts First Exhibition of Statuary, Paintings, etc, 1859, cat. 180, as “Landscape.”
Chicago, McVicker’s Theatre Building, Chicago Exhibition of the Fine Arts of the Chicago Branch of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, 1863, cat. 200, as “South America.”
Oakenwald School, Chicago, IL, Paintings and Water Colors, Dec 6, 1935.
Art Institute of Chicago and New York City, Whitney Museum of Art, The Hudson River School, 1945, cat. 45.
New London, Conn., Lyman Allyn Museum, Eighty Eminent Painters of Connecticut, 1947, cat. 90.
Milwaukee–Downer College, Wisconsin, A Century of Landscape Painting by American Artists, 1851–1951, Feb 13 – Mar 23, 1951, cat. no. 3. *only checklist on back of symposium brochure, The Arts in Society, Milwaukee–Downer College Feb 13, 1951.
Durand Art Institute, Lake Forest College, A Century of American Painting: Masterpieces Loaned by The Art Institute of Chicago, Jun 10–16, 1957, cat. 1.
Newark, University of Delaware and Wilmington Society of Fine Arts, American Painting 1857–1869, Jan 10–Feb 18, 1962, cat. 14.
Washington, DC, National Museum of American Art, Creation and Renewal: Views of Cotopaxi by Frederic Edwin Church, Mar 29–Jul 14, 1985, cat. 6.
Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, Frederic Edwin Church, Oct 8, 1989–Jan 28, 1990, cat. 29.
Tokyo, Japan, Masterworks of Modern Art from The Art Institute of Chicago; traveled to Nagaoka, Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Apr 20–May 29, 1994, Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Jun 10–Jul 24, 1994, Yokohama Museum of Art Aug 6–Sep 25, 1994.
New York City, Berry–Hill Galleries, In Search of the Promised Land: Frederic Edwin Church and Exploration, Apr 25–Jun 30, 2000; traveled to Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, Aug 5–Oct 1, 2000, Portland Art Museum, Oregon, Oct 21, 2000–Jan 3, 2001, Portland Museum of Art, Maine, Jan 18–Mar 18, 2001 (Maine only).

Walter Wright, Chicago, from 1857 to 1876; by descent to Anne E. Webster, from 1876 to 1894; by descent to Lewis Dana Webster, from 1894 to 1908; by descent to Ida Hamlin Webster, from 1908 to 1912; by descent to Mary Jennette Hamlin, from 1912 to 1919; given to The Art Institute of Chicago, 1919.