The Heart of the Andes

Church followed the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt’s dream of a painting that could hold an entire ecosystem, and travelled to Ecuador to gather it: snow peak, waterfall, jungle, a tiny wayside shrine, every leaf and orchid observed. When he unveiled the finished canvas in 1859 he framed it like a window, darkened the room, and handed out opera glasses so visitors could roam it inch by inch — twelve thousand of them, at admission price. It is science and religion and showmanship fused, the New World offered as a single overwhelming glimpse. The most ambitious landscape of its age, and still astonishing at close range.

Maker

Frederic Edwin Church (1826 to 1900)

Date

1859

Medium of the original

Painting

Original held by

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Credit

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York · via Wikimedia Commons

Rights

Public domain, verified

Catalogue number

PA-00643