Oil on canvas
The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan,
Founders' Society Purchase, Robert H Tannahill Foundation Fund, Gibbs-Williams Fund, Dexter M
Ferry Jr Fund, Merril Fund, Beatrice W Rogers Fund
and Richard A Manoogian Fund
> Artist's biography |
At 18,858 feet (5748 m) Cotopaxi was the most impressive of the South American volcanoes; its cone was considered
particularly perfect.
The New York collector James Lenox commissioned this view in 1861. By that date the Civil War had begun, and Church's
decision to depict an eruption has been interpreted as a direct reflection on the tragic turn of events.
The rising sun is obscured by the smoke of nature 'at war with itself', and the landscape shows the world 'evolving out
of the simultaneous processes of creation and destruction'.
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Room 7: Explorations
Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900)