Magdalena River, New Granada, Equador
Medium
graphite heightened with white on wove paper
Dimensions
sheet: 18 × 27.2 cm (7 1/16 × 10 11/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
John Davis Hatch Collection, Avalon Fund
Accession Number
1981.4.2
Art Historical Context
Frederic Edwin Church, a leading figure of the Hudson River School, created *Magdalena River, New Granada, Ecuador* in 1853 during one of his adventurous expeditions to South America. Inspired by explorer Alexander von Humboldt's romantic visions of exotic landscapes, Church traveled along the Magdalena River—then part of the Granadine Confederation (modern-day Colombia and Ecuador)—sketching nature's grandeur on-site. This intimate drawing captures the river's winding path amid lush tropical terrain, reflecting the 19th-century American fascination with sublime wilderness and scientific explo...
About the Artist
Frederic Edwin Church · 1826–1900
Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), born in Hartford, Connecticut, to a prosperous silversmith and banker father, Joseph Church, pursued art from youth thanks to his family's wealth. At age 18, introduced by patron Daniel Wadsworth, he studied under Thomas Cole in Catskill, New York, from 1844 to 1846, sketching across New England and earning Cole's praise for possessing "the finest eye for drawing...