A Private Window to a Lost World
Frederic Edward Church did not paint the ruins of Petra to show off his world travels to the New York elite. He painted them to warm a room for the woman he loved. It was 1874 and Church was building a fortress of a home called Olana on a hill overlooking the Hudson River. He needed something for the fireplace. Most artists of his stature would paint a generic landscape to match the drapes. Church painted a secret city hidden in the Arabian desert.
He called the canvas El Khasne, Petra. It stands tall at sixty inches and it demands your attention. Church forces you to look through a pitch-black rock passage just to see the prize. The rosy glowing light of the ancient architecture contrasts sharply against the dark canyon walls. It is a brutal and dramatic reveal. You are trapped in the dark looking out at a miracle baking in the sun.
Church was obsessed with getting the details right. He spent his life chasing scientific and historical accuracy. The architectural precision of the temple facade proves he was not just painting a fantasy world. He had stood in that dust and measured those carved columns with his own eyes. Yet he kept this oil masterpiece away from the vicious critics and the crowded public galleries. He gave it to his wife. He hung it over their hearth and let the firelight dance across the ancient painted stone. It remained a private window to a lost world until the end of his life.
References
Avery, Kevin J. Treasures from Olana Landscapes by Frederic Edward Church. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005.
Kelly, Franklin. Frederic Edward Church. Washington DC: National Gallery of Art, 1989.
Howat, John K. The Hudson River and its Painters. New York: Penguin Books, 1988.