Thunderstorm in the Alps

Download3000 × 2004 px View on a wall Edit

Artist: Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826–1900)
Medium: Oil and graphite on tan paperboard
Size: H x W: 29.4 × 44.5 cm (11 9/16 × 17 1/2 in.)
Museum: Smithsonian Institution
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Landscape study showing a dramatic view of a double rainbow arching over a lush valley in the the European Alps, as a jagged bolt of lightning strikes the ground at left. The flat, green valley floor extends from the foreground to the middle distance at left and to the background at right, with the onion-shaped steeple of a church shown in the middle distance at right. At center right, a ferociously burning building sends a plume of dark smoke into the sky.

One bright rainbow vibrantly arches into the sky at center, with another, more faded bow beside it at right. At left, a white, zig-zagging bolt of lightning strikes the valley floor near a grove of trees. In the background, a rocky, rugged mountain range extends obliquely into the distance to the right, where the light of the setting sun suffuses the rainy atmosphere with a warm golden glow.