Frederic Church: A Painter’s Pilgrimage
, organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts, features more than fifty paintings and studies that Church completed during and after his 1867–1869 trip to the Near East, Rome, and Greece.
Created in the aftermath of the Civil War, these paintings show Church turning his attention from nature to history, focusing on the rise and fall of civilizations as a way of dealing with loss that was both national and personal. In his paintings of ancient cities and temples, we can see Church’s struggle to make sense of the tragedies of human life and history.
Image: Frederic Edwin Church, American, 1826-1900,
Evening on the Sea
, 1877 - 1878, oil on canvas. Private collection.