Tag: Romanticism

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
Morning in the Tropics by Frederic Edwin Church, 1858
A Country Home by Frederic Edwin Church, 1854
A Country Home by Frederic Edwin Church, 1854
Landscape in the Adirondacks by Frederic Edwin Church
Landscape in the Adirondacks by Frederic Edwin Church
The Monastery of San Pedro by Frederic Edwin Church, 1879
The Monastery of San Pedro by Frederic Edwin Church, 1879
Landscape in Greece by Frederic Edwin Church, 1873
Landscape in Greece by Frederic Edwin Church, 1873
View in Pittsford, Vt. by Frederic Edwin Church, 1848
View in Pittsford, Vt. by Frederic Edwin Church, 1848
Twilight in the Adirondacks by Frederic Edwin Church
Twilight in the Adirondacks by Frederic Edwin Church
The River of Light by Frederic Edwin Church, 1877
The River of Light by Frederic Edwin Church, 1877
Niagara Falls from the American Side by Frederic Edwin Church, 1867
Niagara Falls from the American Side by Frederic Edwin Church, 1867
The Natural Bridge, Virginia by Frederic Edwin Church, 1852
The Natural Bridge, Virginia by Frederic Edwin Church, 1852
The Falls of Tequendama, Near Bogota, New Granada 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
Coast Scene, Mount Desert by Frederic Edwin Church, 1863
Cotopaxi by Frederic Edwin Church, 1855
Cotopaxi by Frederic Edwin Church, 1855
New England Scenery by Frederic Edwin Church, 1851
New England Scenery by Frederic Edwin Church, 1851
South American Landscape by Frederic Edwin Church, 1857
South American Landscape by Frederic Edwin Church, 1857
Scene on the Catskill Creek, New York by Frederic Edwin Church, 1847
Scene on the Catskill Creek, New York by Frederic Edwin Church, 1847
View of Cotopaxi by Frederic Edwin Church, 1857
View of Cotopaxi by Frederic Edwin Church, 1857
Syria by the Sea by Frederic Edwin Church, 1873
Syria by the Sea by Frederic Edwin Church, 1873
Konigsee, Bavaria by Frederic Edwin Church, 1868
Konigsee, Bavaria by Frederic Edwin Church, 1868
The Parthenon by Frederic Edwin Church, 1871
The Parthenon by Frederic Edwin Church, 1871

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