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Frank Baron

From Alexander von Humboldt to Frederic Edwin Church:
Voyages of Scientific Exploration and Artistic Creativity

3. Humboldt’s Sketches and Church’s Paintings

The inspiration certainly did not come only from the books in Church’s library. Did Church not see Humboldt’s version of the Tequendama Falls, the magnificent scenic wonder that he sought to reach and view at considerable effort?[1] When we compare Humboldt’s image with Church’s painting, it becomes evident that Church looked for and located the point from which Humboldt had made his sketch. The comparison suggests that Church had to move back somewhat to be able include lush vegetation and express the explosive power of the water as it struck below and continued its flow toward the observer.

It was evidently not easy for Church to establish the ideal position from which to plan his painting. Considerable work in demolishing entwined branches and vines, and even clearing trees was necessary. Hired hands cleared away the obstructions, and as tree after tree fell, they “disclosed the magnificence of Tequendama. We were wrap[ped] in wonder when finally the whole view was exposed.”[2]

Humboldt, Tequendama (1810), Vues des Cordillères

Frederic Edwin Church, Falls of the Tequendama near Bogotá, New Granada (1864)

Fig. 1    

Alexander von Humboldt, 
Tequendama (1810),
Vues des Cordillères

Fig. 2    

Frederic Edwin Church, 
Falls of the Tequendama near Bogotá, New Granada (1864)

For Church, Tequendama became magnificent only when the canvas was able to articulate a sense of drama. The “whole view” included the water rushing toward the observer.

Is it likely that Church would have embarked on the diversion to the Cayambe volcano, if he had not seen its impressive outline in Humboldt’s sketch?[3] The preparations for the South American travels certainly included research in libraries or the borrowing of Humboldt’s impressive folio volumes. [4] Gerald M. Carr considers it likely that Church consulted Humboldt’s Essai sur la géographie des plantes (1805) and Vues des Cordillères (1810).[5] As in the case of Tequendama, Church appears to step back from the plains that Humboldt faced. This allowed him to show segments of a river, lake, and the tropical plants he experienced as typical for these areas. His painting becomes increasingly complex; Church adds a mysterious quality by placing a neglected, ancient monument in one segment of the foreground.[6]

Humboldt, Cayambe (1810), Vues des Cordillères

F. E. Church, Cayambe (1858), The New York Historical Society

Fig. 3    

Alexander von Humboldt,
Cayambe (1810), Vues des Cordillères

Fig. 4    

Frederic Edwin Church, 
Cayambe (1858), The New York Historical Society

In combination with printed illustrations, the narrative of Humboldt’s travels provided Church with a strategy for finding ideal locations. Church realized that Humboldt’s illustrations were only distantly related to the scenes they described. They were based, after all, on rough, hurried sketches, which were then translated into lithographs by Paris artists. They were interpretations of interpretations and lacked details. The challenge for Church was to devote his exclusive attention to the landscapes that the narratives and lithographs suggested.

The paintings of Chimborazo and Cotopaxi deserved special attention and experimentation. In the context of The Heart of the Andes, probably the most famous landscape of the nineteenth century, the Chimborazo is a part of what a critic has called “the long-lost Garden of Eden, a nascent world left untouched since the creation.”[7] In other paintings Church composed a framework that made the mountain the central actor on his “stage,” as in the case of a canvas from the year 1864.

Alexander von Humboldt, Chimborazo (1810), Vues des Cordillères

Fig. 5    

Alexander von Humboldt, Chimborazo (1810), Vues des Cordillères

 

Frederic Edwin Church, Chimborazo (1858), Virginia Steele Scott Foundation, Huntington Library, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California

Fig. 6    

Frederic Edwin Church, Chimborazo (1858), Virginia Steele Scott Foundation, Huntington Library, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California

 



[1] See the image of the waterfall based on Humboldt’s drawing in Alexander von Humboldt: Briefe aus Amerika. 1799–1804, ed. Ulrike Moheit (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1993), p. 146. The original lithograph is in Vues des cordillères (Paris: F. Schoell, 1810), plate 6.

[2] Huntington, “Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900): Painter of the Adamic New World Myth,” pp. 42–43.

[3] See the lithograph by Louis Bouquet in the Vues des cordillères, plate 42. Reproduced in Alexander von Humboldt, Die Wiederentdeckung der Neuen Welt, ed., Paul Kanut Schäfer (Berlin: Verlag der Nation, 1989), p. 128. In the essay that accompanies this plate Humboldt writes, “The summit of Cayambe is traversed by the equator. We may consider this colossal mountain as one of those eternal monuments, by which nature has marked the great divisions of the terrestrial globe.” Researches, Concerning the Institutions and Monuments of the Ancient Inhabitants of America (London: Longman et al., 1911), p. 100.

[4] Church visited the estate of the noble family of Carlos Montúfar, who accompanied Humboldt on his travels and followed him to Europe. Kevin J. Avery, Church’s Great Picture: The Heart of the Andes (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993), p. 26.

[5] Gerald M. Carr, Frederic Edwin Church. Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of Art at Olana State Historic Site, vol. 1 (Cambridge: University Press, 1994), pp. 212–46.

[6] Another version of Cayambe in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, shows a lake more distinctly, but the monument is missing. The date of this painting is uncertain (1853 or 1858). Katherine Emma Manthorne, Tropical Renaissance: North American Artists Exploring Latin America, 1839–1879 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1989), p. 102.

[7] Manthorne, Tropical Renaissance, p. 11. Mary Sayre Haverstock, “The Cosmos Captured,” Américas 35 (JanuaryFebruary 1983), pp. 3741.

 

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