Cleveland Museum of Art
Twilight in the Wilderness
Frederic Edwin ChurchLinkedCulture matchlcp-542e08b20ef1
- Date
- 1860
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Culture
- America
- Department
- American Painting and Sculpture
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 141639
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
In his New York studio, Church painted this spectacular view of a blazing sunset over wilderness near Mount Katahdin in Maine, which he had sketched during a visit nearly two years earlier. Although Church often extolled the grandeur of American landscape in his work, this painting appears to have additional overtones. Created on the eve of the Civil War, the painting's subject can be interpreted as symbolically evoking the coming conflagration. Church's considerable technical skills and clever showmanship contributed to his fame as the premier artist of his generation. Rather than debut this painting in an annual exhibition with works by other artists as was the custom, Church instead exhibited it by itself at a prestigious art gallery. Coaxed by advance publicity and highly favorable press reviews, several hundred spectators flocked to admire it during its seven-week run. An image of this painting has a cameo in the Harrison Ford film Clear and Present Danger .
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Provenance
- 1860-1864: William T. Walters [1820-1894], Baltimore, MD, consigned to Samuel Putnam Avery for sale at Henry H. Leeds and Co. | 1864: (Henry H. Leeds and Co., New York, NY, Feb. 12-13, 1864) | 1864-1866: (Samuel Putnam Avery [1822-1904], New York, NY) | 1866: (Leeds and Minor at Old Dusseldorf Gallery, New York, NY, March 9, 1866, no. 174, sold to John Taylor Johnston) | 1866-1876: John Taylor Johnston [1820-1893], New York, NY | 1876: (Chickering Hall, John Taylor Johnston sale, Dec. 19-22, 1876, sold to John Work Garrett?) | 1876-probably 1884: John Work Garrett [1820-1884], Baltimore, MD, by descent to his daughter, Mary E. Garrett? | Probably 1884-at least 1902: Mary E. Garrett [1854-1909], Baltimore, MD, sold to Robert de Forest | After 1902-1931: Robert de Forest [1848-1931], Parkers Point, CT, by descent to his brother, Lockwood de Forest | 1931-1932: Lockwood de Forest [1850–1932], Santa Barbara, CA, by descent to his son, Alfred Victor de Forest | 1932-1945: Alfred Victor de Forest [1888-1945], Marlborough, NH, by descent to his son, Taber de Forest | 1945-early 1960s: Taber de Forest [1913–1978], Maine, sold to David Wilson McCoy | 1963: David Wilson McCoy [1916–2011], Lyme, CT, sold to Robert Paul Weimann, Jr., Ansonia, CT | c. 1963–65: Robert Paul Weimann, Jr. [1925–1978], Ansonia, CT, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 1965-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Part of a LinkedCulture topic
American Landscape and Coastal PaintingsThese works are 19th-century oil paintings depicting natural landscapes and seascapes from the northeastern United States, particularly coastal New England regions and rocky shores.
140 objects from 4 institutions
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