Castle in the Mountains

Download3000 × 2305 px View on a wall Edit

Artist: Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826–1900)
Medium: Brush and oil on tan paperboard
Size: 23.8 × 30.9 cm (9 3/8 × 12 3/16 in.)
Museum: Smithsonian Institution
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Landscape sketch showing an imagined view of a castle perched on a lofty prominence deep within a range of extremely rugged mountains. In the foreground at left, a dark and rocky cliffside frames the view of a seemingly bottomless crevice that snakes through the center of the composition. In the middle distance at right, a castle with a large, round turret is perched atop a rocky prominence with green, grassy surfaces.

A stone bridge with two arches traverses a dramatically steep cascade. The tower catches the pinkish light of the setting or rising sun, which is out of view at left. In the middle distance at left and in the background, multiple craggy peaks with towering pinnacles are visible, illuminated pinkish red. In the background, a large mountain rises diagonally to a peak at upper right. The sky is a luminous hue of yellow-green.