The couple had six children but tragedy struck when the two eldest died during an epidemic of diphtheria. In 1860 at the age of thirty-four, Church purchased land near the Hudson River in New York state where he settled after his marriage to Isabel Carnes. He used his commercial success during the American Civil War of 1861-5 to raise funds for injured Union soldiers and their families with prints of his work Our Banner in the Sky (1861). Church had evidently inherited his father's business acumen as people had to pay a fee to view it in isolation from his other work and he finally sold it for the then extravagant sum of ten thousand dollars. However, the painting which made Church famous was Heart of the Andes (1859). Morning in the Tropics (1857) and View of the Magdalena River (1857) are two examples of work from this trip. Church completed highly detailed sketches which would be used later to create oil on canvas paintings. In 1857 Church revisited South America with fellow artist, Louis Rémy Mignot. Church's work shared their techniques of using undetectable brush strokes and horizontal arrangements of form. It was fairly typical of the luminist style being adopted by contemporary American artists such as Albert Bierstadt, Sanford Gifford and Martin Johnson Heade. Inspired by Humboldt's narrative, Church's landscapes such as The Cordilleras, Sunrise (1854) A Country Home (1854) and the Andes of Ecuador (1855) began to include striking bursts of sunlight and reflections on clouds and lakes. The previous year Church had read Alexander von Humboldt's account of his journeys through the South American continent and his hope that artists would one day capture the unique scenery. In 1853 the entrepreneur, Cyrus West Field, was eager for publicity for his business interests in South America and duly paid for Church to produce paintings of Ecuador. Desert (1850) had become far more complex in detail than Cole's. By now his paintings such as Storm in the Mountains (1847), West Rock, New Haven (1847) and Otter Creek, Mt. He was even sought to teach his skills to protegees such as Jervis McEntee and William James Stillman.
An Established ArtistĪt the age of twenty-four, Church was regularly exhibiting and most significantly, selling his work at the prestigious National Academy of Design, the Boston Art Club and the American Art Union.
Sheldon believed Church's work lacked originality. Church's Home by the Lake and the Natural Bridge, Virginia, both painted in 1852 exhibit the painstaking detail of a photographic copy. Church avidly read his copy of Alexander von Humboldt's Kosmos which outlined the artist's responsibilities in depicting scenes that showed how religion, nature and science were inextricably linked. He was also influenced by the increasing debate between scientists inspired by Charles Darwin's evolutionist theories and religious traditionalists who favoured the Creationist view. A much stronger influence on his work may have been John Ruskin's book entitled Modern Painters which advocated showing the incredible detail of everything an artist could see in a landscape. InfluencesĪlthough Church shared Cole's steadfast Protestant beliefs he rarely painted overtly religious, allegorical scenes after his depiction of Moses Viewing the Promised Land (1846). In form it is strikingly similar to Cole's The Oxbow (The Connecticut River near Northampton) painted in 1836. The large majestic trees and rocks to the foreground with tiny central figures against a panoramic landscape disappearing into the distance was an arrangement Church would repeatedly return to in paintings such as New England Scenery (1851), Cotopaxi (1855) and Passing Shower in the Tropics (1872). His romanticised image of the untamed landscape is botanically accurate and orderly. However, Church's sweeping landscape with its smoothly applied brushwork is far from wild. It was a detailed study of his ancestor's journey in 1636 through the wilderness that was to become Connecticut. Two years later Church sold his first painting at the Wadsworth Athenium. As they painted and sketched the New England scenery of Vermont and Long Island, Church impressed Cole with his artistic ability. He arranged for the eighteen-year-old Frederic to study in New York with Thomas Cole, a self-taught landscape artist who pioneered the Hudson River School style of romanticised art. In 1844 one of Joseph Church's associates, Daniel Wadsworth, established an art gallery and museum known as the Wadsworth Athenium in Hartford.
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