COLLECTION NAME:
The AMICA Library
Record
AMICA ID:
CMA_.1965.233
AMICA Library Year:
1998
Object Type:
Paintings
Creator Name:
Church, Frederic Edwin
Creator Nationality:
North American; American
Creator Role:
artist
Creator Dates/Places:
1826 - 1900
Gender:
M
Creator Name-CRT:
Frederic Edwin Church
Title:
Twilight in the Wilderness
Title Type:
Primary
View:
Full View
Creation Date:
1860
Creation Start Date:
1860
Creation End Date:
1860
Materials and Techniques:
oil on canvas
Dimensions:
Unframed: 101.6cm x 162.6cm
AMICA Contributor:
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Owner Location:
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
ID Number:
1965.233
Credit Line:
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
Inscriptions:
Signed lower right: "F. E. CHURCH / -60-"
Context:
Although this is a convincing landscape, it does not depict a specific place. Church created it by combining several different sketches made in Maine and New York. The dramatic light electrifying the entire composition is based on sunsets he witnessed from the window of his New York City studio.Perhaps the artist intended twilight to suggest the end of a cosmic cycle---a meaning that coincides with the feeling that the Civil Was (imminent in 1860 when this picture was made) would change American civilization forever. The panoramic splendor created by brilliant clouds floating above a tranquil landscape also suggests the divine authority of "manifest destiny," the idea that Americans of European stock had a right to the continent. Seen by large numbersof Americans in a touring exhibition organized by Church himself, this picture was marketed as essentially "American"---a comforting, patriotic image of the American wilderness.
Related Image Identifier Link:
CMA_.1965.233.tif
