Sunset over the Catskills, Catskill, New York
September 1844 and June 1845
Medium
landscapes
Classification
landscapes
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Louis P. Church
Accession Number
1917-4-1431
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Frederic Edwin Church's *Sunset over the Catskills, Catskill, New York* (1844–1845) captures the dramatic beauty of New York's Catskill Mountains at dusk, a subject central to early American landscape painting. Painted when Church was just 18–19 years old, this work marks the beginning of his illustrious career. As a protégé of Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School—the first major native art movement in the United States—Church depicted the American wilderness with romantic reverence, emphasizing nature's grandeur and spiritual power. Rendered during separate sketching trips in ...