Chimborazo through Rising Mist and Clouds, Ecuador

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Artist: Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826–1900)
Medium: Brush and oil paint, graphite on off-white paperboard
Size: 34.5 × 53.9 cm (13 9/16 × 21 1/4 in.)
Museum: Smithsonian Institution
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Landscape sketch showing a view of the stratovolcano known as Chimborazo through rising mist and clouds, likely viewed from the vicinity of Guaranda in Ecuador. The middle distance comprises of dimly lit, rolling terrain with numerous hills and fields that is cut off in the distance by a long band of rising mist, articulated in bluish gray tones.

A rugged, brown mountain range with rocky summits peeks out above this bank of mist at center and right, while a bank of dark, reddish-brown clouds looms above it. At upper right, the full moon is visible through a window in these clouds. In the background at left, the snow-capped peak of Chimborazo towers over the scene with its twin, rounded peaks. The tan ground is visible along the lower margin in the foreground, which is only rendered in graphite.