Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900)
Autumn, 1853
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Oil on canvas
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20 1/8 x 30 3/8 inches
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Signed and dated lower right of center: F. CHURCH / 1853
Provenance
- Rick Lapham, Vermont
- Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, New York
- Private collection, Toledo, Ohio, 1990
- Private collection
- Burrichter/Kierlin Collection, Winona, Minnesota, 2011
- Minnesota Marine Art Museum, Winona, Minnesota, on long-term loan from above
- Collection of J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox, acquired from above
Exhibited
(Possibly) National Academy of Design, New York, New York, 1853 (as Valley of the Madawasca)
The Romantic Landscape of Frederic Edwin Church, Adelson Galleries, New York, New York, January 18–March 1, 2008
Literature
(Possibly) National Academy of Design Exhibition Record. 1826–1860, vol. 1 (New York: New-York Historical Society, 1943), 81 (as Valley of the Madawasca).
Franklin Kelly, Frederic Edwin Church (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989), 161.
Gerald L. Carr, Frederic Edwin Church: Catalogue Raisonné of Works of Art at Olana State Historic Site, vol. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 224.
Gerald L. Carr, Frederic Edwin Church: Romantic Landscapes and Seascapes (New York: Adelson Galleries, 2007), 25, 71, no. 9, fig. 12.
Annette Blaugrund, ed., Charting New Waters: Redefining Marine Painting, Masterworks from the Burrichter/Kierlin Collection (Winona: Minnesota Marine Art Museum, 2013), 24, 25, 106, fig. 4.
Note
Compared with contemporaries such as Jasper Francis Cropsey and Sanford Robinson Gifford, Frederic Edwin Church painted relatively few autumnal scenes. Completed in 1853, Autumn remained Church’s largest fall scene until his 1856 work of the same title. With its vivid colors and expansive vista, Church’s Autumn emphasizes the visual qualities of the season, which were seen at the time as distinctly American.
This painting may be one Church exhibited as Valley of the Madawasca at the National Academy of Design in 1853, suggesting the imagery depicts the Madawaska River that runs through Maine and Canada. However, the scene may also be a composite of landscapes from across New England.
Related Work
- Twilight, ‘Short Arbiter, Twixt Day and Night’, 1850, oil on canvas, 32 1/4 x 48 inches; Newark Museum, New Jersey
- New England Scenery, 1851, oil on canvas, 36 x 53 inches; George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, Springfield, Massachusetts
- Home by the Lake, 1852, oil on canvas, 31 7/8 x 48 1/4 inches, signed and dated lower left; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas
catalogue
A Collector’s Journey
The catalogue, A Collector’s Journey, is designed specifically for museum directors and curators, by focusing solely on the appearance, provenance, and exhibition history of each painting. The collections are dynamic and will continue to expand as additional exceptional and historically important paintings are acquired.
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