Trees near Mt. Katahdin, Maine
September 1876
Classification
landscapes
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Louis P. Church
Accession Number
1917-4-510-b
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Frederic Edwin Church, a master of the Hudson River School invites us into the wild beauty of Maine with *Trees near Mt. Katain, Maine*, painted en plein air in September 1876. As one of America's foremost landscape artists (1826–1900), Church was renowned for his meticulous depictions of the nation's pristine wilderness, blending scientific precision with romantic grandeur. Mt. Katahdin, Maine's rugged highest peak, held special allure for him—he had summited and sketched it decades earlier, capturing its spiritual majesty as a symbol of untamed American frontier. This intimate landscape foc...