Above the Clouds at Sunrise by Frederic Edgar Church, 1849
Classic Art Print
A
reproduction of the masterpiece by Frederic Edgar Church, “Above the
Clouds at Sunrise” of 1849. This early work of Church was painted when
he was twenty-three. He has created a landscape without land and is
probably one of the most audacious landscapes ever created. All
elements are either in the horizontal or diagonal save two upthrusting
trees. The use of a pink shade to the cloud bank is also stirring and
somehow disturbing.
Frederic
Church was the leading artist of the second generation of the Hudson
River School. By the time of this work, he was the most famous
contemporary American artist at the age of thirty-four years. He had
been a student of Benjamin Cole. As tastes changed after 1865,
Church’s popularity with the public began to fade but he continued to
paint and was very comfortable due to the significant private wealth of
his family. He died in New York City in 1900.
