![]() Humbolt died in 1859, the year that Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species”, was published. A more in depth discussion is found in the book, ‘Frederic Edwin Church”, written by Franklin Kelly, with an essay by Stephen Jay Gould, “Church, Humboldt, and Darwin: The Tension and Harmony of Art and Science”. The writings of naturalist Alexander von Humboldt prompted Church to make two treks to South America. America journey from 1799-1804Ĭosmos: Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe “Are we not justified in hoping that landscape painting will flourish with a new and hitherto unknown brilliancy when artists of merit shall…be enabled, far in the interior of continents, in the humid mountain valleys of the tropical world, to seize, with the genuine freshness of a pure and youthful spirit, on the true image of the varied forms of nature?” Alexander von Humboldt, “Cosmos: Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe”.īy Alexander von Humbolt, S. Church’s interests lead him to painting excursions in South America, Jamaica, the Middle East, Maine and the Arctic circle. He was also inspired by emerging thought, science, and exploration. Much of Church’s inspiration came from the Hudson River Valley near his home in Olana. The tearing down of trees, natural habitats, and spewing toxins into the air and water. During Church’s time there was still plenty wilderness in America and yet there were already signs of man’s scourge. Acknowledging the sublime power and beauty of nature, the impermanence of time and man’s blot upon all. The dead tree, Church’s nod to generations of preceding landscape artists, including his teacher Thomas Cole and European predecessors can be found in many of his paintings. Storm in the Mountains, 1847, Frederic Church We must all be accountable – no denial or accepting the unacceptable. Our nation under one banner is doomed if we allow ill sentiment to flourish. Blinded by ignorance and arrogance these Americans chose to wield their arsenals in an anarchy of hate and fear.Ĭhurch’s painting serves as a reminder that ultimately we need to face our collective past, our imperfect beginnings and egregious missteps. Shrapnel and festering wounds of five generations. After 160-years when blood was spilt upon the battlegrounds and slavery ended these individuals choose to not accept defeat. ![]() The Capitol buildings of the nation and all 50 states are under threat. It will become all one thing, or all the other.” Abraham Lincoln at the Republican State Convention, Springfield, Illinois June 16, 1858.Īs I write we are days away from the inauguration of a new president. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. Even after the invasion on Congress, 147 Republicans supported the objection to the electoral vote. Breaking barriers and injuring police the horde broke down doors and windows, laying siege to a Congress in session to certify the electoral vote. When a mob of misinformed and misled marauders plundered the Capitol. 1 The dormant Civil War drums rumble, awakened on January 6 th, 2021 ![]() His picture dealer had the work, titled Our Banner in the Sky, made into lithographs which sold briskly in the following months. Only once more, and then only as a special request from a private collector, did Church produce anything so baldly patriotic as Our Banner in the Sky. Yet his subsequent major landscape paintings can be read like a barometer of the war. Weeks later Church dashed off a celestial vision of a Union flag composed of parallel bars of scarlet clouds parting to reveal a starry firmament, an image he developed from such earlier works as Twilight, a Sketch painted in the 1850s. In reaction, a massive rally was formed in New York’s Union Square, where the battle-worn Sumter banner was raised aloft, and the indignant crowds waved the stars and stripes. Union outrage at the Confederate assault on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, had been stoked by the insult to the nation’s flag, torn by shell fire even after the white cloth of surrender went up. Painted at a time when the sovereignty of the United States was at stake, shortly after the attack that sparked the Civil War in April of 1861. The events of the last week prompted me to share the painting above, Our Banner in the Sky, by Frederic Edwin Church ( 1826-1900). Our Banner in The Sky, Frederic Edwin Church, 7.5” x 11.25”, oil on paper, 1861įeaturing the Stars and Stripes of the Union Flag and the Northern Star
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