A
reproduction of the masterpiece by Frederic Edgar Church, “The
Icebergs” of 1863. This work of Church was the result of his 1859
sketching trip to the arctic. The American imagination had been
captured by the loss of the Franklin expedition in 1847 and Church
fully participated in that fascination. He showed the painting in 1861
but, not finding an American buyer, he added elements to the painting
and shipped it to London where it was a sensation. The work is
currently at the Dallas Museum of Art.
Frederic
Church was the leading artist of the second generation of the Hudson
River School. By the time of this work, he was the most famous
contemporary American artist at the age of thirty-four years. He had
been a student of Benjamin Cole. As tastes changed after 1865,
Church’s popularity with the public began to fade but he continued to
paint and was very comfortable due to the significant private wealth of
his family. He died in New York City in 1900.
