20 Romantic Dreamscapes from 19th Century artist Frederic Edwin Church

Frederic Edwin Church loved to dream. He dreamed of mountains, waterfalls, and sunsets. He dreamed of exotic lands shrouded in mist, of waves crashing against craggy cliffs, of reflections in the stillness of dawn’s first light.

Church was a pupil of Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School of American landscape painters—an art movement influenced by romanticism.

Romanticism was a reaction to the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment that emphasized an emotional connection with nature. Romantic paintings used a luminous quality of light to convey idealized scenes depicting the richness and beauty of nature.

Church shows us the wild, untamed frontier landscapes of an unsettled America that were fast disappearing and the dramatic natural wonders he experienced on his travels around the world.

We are reminded of just how small we are in comparison with the magnificence of nature.

Morning in the Tropics by Frederic Edwin Church, 1858

A Country Home by Frederic Edwin Church, 1854

Landscape in the Adirondacks by Frederic Edwin Church

The Monastery of San Pedro by Frederic Edwin Church, 1879

Landscape in Greece by Frederic Edwin Church, 1873

View in Pittsford, Vt. by Frederic Edwin Church, 1848

Twilight in the Adirondacks by Frederic Edwin Church

The River of Light by Frederic Edwin Church, 1877

Niagara Falls from the American Side by Frederic Edwin Church, 1867

The Natural Bridge, Virginia by Frederic Edwin Church, 1852

The Falls of Tequendama, Near Bogota, New Granada by Frederic Edwin Church, 1852

Coast Scene, Mount Desert by Frederic Edwin Church, 1863

Cotopaxi by Frederic Edwin Church, 1855

New England Scenery by Frederic Edwin Church, 1851

South American Landscape by Frederic Edwin Church, 1857

Scene on the Catskill Creek, New York by Frederic Edwin Church, 1847

View of Cotopaxi by Frederic Edwin Church, 1857

Syria by the Sea by Frederic Edwin Church, 1873

Konigsee, Bavaria by Frederic Edwin Church, 1868

The Parthenon by Frederic Edwin Church, 1871

Considering taking up art as a hobby? Here’s a training course suggestion.

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Beginner’s Oil Painting: An introductory course for the aspiring artist, with Los Angeles artist Daniel Raminfard.

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