Tree Sketches, Catskill, New York
Medium
nature studies
Classification
nature studies
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Louis P. Church
Accession Number
1917-4-1-b
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Frederic Edwin Church, a pioneering American landscape painter of the Hudson River School, created *Tree Sketches, Cats, New York* in 1844 at just 18 years old. set of nature studies captures the rugged beauty of the Cats Mountains, a region central to the Hudson River's celebration of America's wild frontiers. Church, who began formal training under Thomas Cole—the school's founder—that same year, ventured into these Catskill woods to hone his eye for nature's details, laying the groundwork for his later monumental canvases like *Niagara* and *Heart of the Andes*. As pencil or charcoal studi...