Frederic Edwin Church and the Slow Burn of July Sunset
Frederic Edwin Church was just twenty-one years old when he painted July Sunset. It was 1847 and he was still a student learning the ropes from Thomas Cole. Most kids that age are just figuring out how to survive. Church was busy figuring out how to capture the divine on canvas. He was already a prodigy building his name in oil paint.
He did not care about rendering every single tree exactly where it grew. Strict topographical accuracy was a dead end. Church was already developing a severe obsession with light. Look at that glowing sky. It burns with a slow heat that makes the dirt and rock below feel heavy and transient. The landscape is just an excuse to paint the atmosphere.
A solitary figure stands out there in the untouched American wilderness. It is a classic trick to make the landscape feel vast and overwhelming. You drop a tiny person into the frame so everyone looking at the painting feels properly insignificant. The world is huge and we are small and Church wanted you to know it.
He sent the finished piece to the American Art Union in New York. He did not aim this at elite art snobs in stuffy parlors. The union sold art through a lottery system to reach everyday buyers. A normal person probably took this glowing masterpiece home and hung it in a modest room. It was a heavy slice of the sublime meant for regular people just trying to get by.
References
Avery, Kevin J. Churchs Great Picture. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993.
Howat, John K. Frederic Edwin Church. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.
Kelly, Franklin. Frederic Edwin Church and the National Landscape. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988.