Product Description

Customer Reviews (5)

American Landscape
The reproductions in this book are dark compared to the originals I've seen, but the text is informative and does a good job of exploring Church as an artist and his influence on the artists who followed him.

Breath taking
This book is a must have if you love Fredric Church and want to find out more about his life and career. The paintings are breath taking. For admirers ofthe Hudson River School and American landscapes this is a must.

Frederic Church by John K. Howat
Terrific book. One of the best biographies of an artist that I have read and stunning reproductions of his work. Church seemed to be an anomaly of his time because his talent and painting skills were so "over the top" that he dwarfed other painters of his time. Even the highly esteemed English artists of the 1800's were amazed by his paintings and British art critic John Ruskin praised his work. Church's output and work ethic was amazing and Howat does a great job describing his life and painting techniques. I certainly recommend this book.

Robert Reynolds

Here is the most comprehensive comparision/review, of the ONLY 2 books on Frederick Church!
FREDERICK EDWIN CHURCH - COMPARISIONS OF THE TWO BOOKS

Book #1: By Franklin Kelly - National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Press (1989)
Book #2: By John K. Howat - Yale University Press (2005)

(All numbers given, are for the numbered reproductions in Book #2.)

Paintings in Book #2 (in Color), that are NOT in Book #1 -
#1, 9, 10, 13, 15, 18, 24, 25, 27, 29, 40, 41, 42, 48, 53, 60, 66, 67, 68, 70, 73, 74, 75, 81, 82, 86, 94, 95, 96, 97, 114, 115, 120, 131, 132, 133, 135, 136, 140, 142, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 169, 182, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195

Paintings in Color in Book #2, that are ONLY in Black & White in Book #1 -
#16, 21, 117, 124, 126, 134, 177, 181, 185, 189

(I didn't include any of the details, drawings, sketches, or photographs.)

I made comparisons of every reproduction, where both books had the same paintings. Here is a simplified overview, of which book had the best reproduction:

REPRODUCTIONS THAT WERE MUCH BETTER IN BOOK #1 -
#22, 26, 46, 53, 65, 72, 92, 118, 137, 175

REPRODUCTIONS THAT WERE MUCH BETTER IN BOOK #2 -
#17, 28, 31, 33, 34, 38, 41, 47, 49, 50, 51, 69, 71, 83, 113, 116, 125, 128, 168, 178, 180

The others were either EQUAL, or there was just a slight preference between the two.

Overall, the printing and the paper stock, is better in Book #2.

The main fault of the reproductions in Book #2 (that are better in Book #1), is they are too dark. And the main fault of the reproductions in Book #1, is that many of the reproductions are too yellow (or red, etc.).

The TITLES were different (most likely wrong in Book #1) for these paintings -
#49 (!), 53, 134, 179 (!), 185

#160 is CROPPED in Book #2! (The entire bottom, and the right-hand side).

There were many differences in the SIZE of the reproductions - too many to mention.
(Overall, Book #1 had larger reproductions, but of course had fewer paintings.)

Book #1: "FREDERICK EDWIN CHURCH" - 205 illustrations, 75 in color - 211 pages
Book #2: "FREDERICK CHURCH" - 198 illustrations, 154 in color - 213 pages

Geoffrey Chandler - February 15, 2007 - San Francisco, California

P.S. The guy who wrote the earlier review was dead wrong. This is NOT "pricey", it's a bargain!

so many sunsets
A strikingly pretty book. The text is informative, but not at all challenging to read. Unlike many art books, this really is a straightforward informative biography with lots of well-done, accurate reproductions. It's pricey, but you get what you pay for with the prints. One might want a bit more criical an appraisal of the artist and his choice of subject matter, but maybe you just want the art. ... Read more

Product Description
During the years following the Civil War, many artists, including Homer, Church, and Moran, created images of America's scenic wonders and great landscape icons. These works, as well as decorative art objects, popular literature, photographs, and other ephemera helped to make the country's landscape a source of national pride and promoted landscape tourism.

FREDERIC CHURCH, WINSLOW HOMER, AND THOMAS MORAN: Tourism and the American Landscape is a major exhibition mounted by the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum which will showcase, for the first time in more than two decades, the museum's extraordinary collection of more than 2000 paintings and drawings, which encompasses the largest grouping of Homer and Church objects in the world. Five original essays will accompany the 200 illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Travel Paintings from Early America
I am a big fan of American Impressionism and I like all three of the artists featured in this book.It's a scholarly review of the images that made Americans travel to see if the scenery was as magical as these artists depicted.From the New England coast, Niagra Falls, Grand Canyon, and Yosemite these artist were engaging in a recording of scenery that would soon be altered by the hordes of tourists that followed.
While photography was just beginning to record many of these same scenes it was not in color and it lacked the ephemeral quality that master painters like Church, Homer, and Moran were able to create.
I'm fairly certain this is the first time three of my favorite artists are featured in one book and show favorite scenes of magnificent American places.It is sold at many art galleries for much more than one can find on Amazon.It's picture intensive, meaning if you prefer more examples and less text you will be happy with this effort.A well-balanced effort. ... Read more

Product Description
Frederic Church (1826-1900), who gained international renown for paintings such as Niagara (1857), Heart of the Andes (1859), Twilight in the Wilderness (1860), and The Icebergs (1861), was inspired by his extensive travel and study. His work was also informed by his appreciation of a new visual medium. Fire & Ice, a selection from the several thousand photographs and daguerreotypes Church collected at Olana, his Orientalist home on the Hudson River, provides insight into the interests and taste of one of nineteenth-century America's greatest painters.

Church was a boy of thirteen when the invention of photography was announced to the world. As a painter, he was of the first generation to grow up with photographs and consider them a useful adjunct to his work. Church collected photographs and daguerreotypes by early pioneers of the art, including Désiré Charnay, Eadweard Muybridge, and Carleton Watkins. His collection appears to have served largely as a source of inspiration and armchair travel, reminding him of favorite locations and details of architecture, culture, and landscape.

In Fire & Ice, images from Church's collection are shown along with a selection of his own oil sketches, drawings, and archival materials. Some of the photographs are devoted to the varied geographical interests reflected in Church's art and travels: Central and South America, the Middle East, and the polar North. Others served as visual reference for the design and construction of Olana. Lavishly illustrated, Fire and Ice shows how the photographs in Church's collection echoed the principal stages of the painter's career. ... Read more

Product Description
Twelve days after the onset of the American Civil War in April of 1861, Frederic Edwin Church, the most successful American landscape painter of his day, debuted his latest "Great Picture" -- a painting titled The North. Despite favorable reviews, the painting failed to find a buyer. Faced with this unexpected setback, Church added a broken mast to the foreground and changed the work's title to The Icebergs. He then shipped the painting to London, where it was finally sold to an English railroad magnate and subsequently disappeared from view for 116 years.

This beautiful book tells the fascinating story of The Icebergs and provides a detailed look at the cycle of fame, neglect, and resuscitation of both this masterwork and Church's career. In 1979, The Icebergs sold at auction for $2.5 million, at the time the highest amount ever paid for an American painting. The sale coincided with an upswing in the popularity and acclaim accorded to American landscape painting, catalyzing the market for American art and contributing to a revival in the prestige of Church and the Hudson River School. Drawing on extensive interviews with many of the people involved with the painting's rediscovery, sale, and eventual donation to the Dallas Museum of Art, the author considers the way marketing has defined The Icebergs.

This book accompanies an exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art from September 8, 2002 until January 15, 2003. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Voyage of the Icebergs:Frederic Church's Arctic Masterpiece
This is a truly amazing piece of art.To truly appreciate it you need to see it in person as one can sit for hours in front of it.But it's story is also amazing - laying hidden away for decades.Forgotten.Love the art.Love the book.If you love American art, this is a must have book.And if you are ever in Dallas, please go see it in person at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Just the icebergs
If you want to know about Fredric Church's Iceberg paintings, this is the book.Other than a little background on the artist, this doesn't say much about anything else.Almost every page has excellent color prints. ... Read more

Product Description
Beautiful four-color paintings and illustrations!Olanawas the home of Frederic Church, a student of Thomas Cole and a majorfigure in the Hudson River School of landscape painting.Called byChurch "the center of the world," Olana's Perrsian-style house andromantically-designed grounds are a "perfect Eden of picturesquebeauty." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Olana
I find the book fulfills my reason for buying it which is to further study the colors church used in the house. ... Read more