Frederic Church's Paintings of Maine

Tags for: Frederic Church's Paintings of Maine
  • Lecture
Saturday, November 22, 2014, 2:00 p.m.
Location:  Gartner Auditorium
Gartner Auditorium
Twilight in the Wilderness (detail), 1860. Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826-1900).  1965.233

Twilight in the Wilderness (detail), 1860. Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826–1900). Oil on canvas; 101.6 x 162.6 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1965.233.

About The Event

American art expert John Wilmerding will look at the large body of work Frederic Edwin Church produced over several decades and multiple visits to Maine between 1850 and 1880. Inspired principally by the example of his mentor Thomas Cole, exhibition of Fitz Henry Lane’s paintings in New York, and the Maine writings of Henry Thoreau, most of Church’s early pictures of Maine through the 1850s were devoted to the Mount Desert region, while his later trips concentrated on spending time around Mount Katahdin. His art gradually shifted from a national vision of landscape to a more personal and private expression. An artist of outstanding technical and imaginative capacities, he produced indelible images in pencil drawing, oil sketches, and finished exhibition paintings. Central to this story is his magisterial painting Twilight in the Wilderness in the Cleveland Museum of Art.

John Wilmerding, Sarofim Professor of American Art (Emeritus) at Princeton University, is a trustee of the Guggenheim Museum, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art; and was reappointed by President Obama to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House. He was previously a visiting curator in the department of American art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and senior curator and deputy director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Free; reservations recommended. Reserve through the Ticket Center in person, by calling (216) 421-7350, or online at tickets.clevelandart.org.