South American Landscape

Download3000 × 2001 px View on a wall Edit

Artist: Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826–1900)
Medium: Oil and graphite on paperboard
Size: H x W: 28.6 × 43.2 cm (11 1/4 × 17 in.)
Museum: Smithsonian Institution
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Landscape study showing an imagined view of a South American landscape with two towering, snow-capped peaks--Chimborazo at left and Cotopaxi in the distance at center, which are shown in much closer proximity than they are in actuality. In the foreground at right, a church is perched atop a rocky promontory from which the base of a vibrant rainbow springs. The church overlooks a river valley in the foreground at left that includes a bridge and a group of buildings.

This lush plain extends to the middle distance, which it is bounded by a steep rise that leads to a rocky mountaintop at right. At center, a waterfall visibly cascades down this abrupt mountainside, leading to the river in the foreground. The mountains Chimborazo and Cotopaxi are visible in the background across an elevated plain, also known as a "páramo." Above, a dark cloud bank at left hangs in an otherwise open and blue sky.