The heart of the Andes

The Heart of the Andes is one of the United States' great oil treasures, exalting God's creation and displaying the wonder of his world on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The artist, Frederic Edwin Church, was a Christian who wanted to show people the wonders of all that God had done on earth. At a time when travel was arduous and dangerous, Church undertook long journeys to sketch the most beautiful landscapes in the world. Upon returning home to New York, he turned his sketches into paintings worthy of any museum on earth. At one point, he was the best-known artist of his time.

Frederic Edwin Church, (born May 4, 1826, Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.; died April 7, 1900, near New York, New York), was an American romantic landscape painter who was one of the most prominent members of the Hudson River School. . Church studied with the painter Thomas Cole at his home in Catskill, New York, and they remained friends throughout their lives. From the beginning, the Church sought natural wonders such as Niagara Falls, erupting volcanoes, and icebergs for its themes.

A trip in 1857 took the Church to South America, a place little visited by North Americans. Upon returning home, he used his sketches to create a masterpiece called "The Heart of the Andes." A huge painting, which was a composite of the Church's impressions from various places, especially in Ecuador.

This masterpiece, five and a half feet by almost ten feet (168.3 x 302.9 cm), was first exhibited in New York in April 1859 and caused a sensation. Displayed in a dark room, lit by gas flames behind silver spotlights and surrounded by tropical plants, it was like an imaginary trip to the Andes for New York City residents, most of whom could never dream of traveling. to such an exotic place. Nearly 13,000 people paid 25 cents to file during its three-week debut. It received an equally enthusiastic reception in London that summer and throughout the United States as the painting toured the country over the following years.