FREDERICK EDWIN CHURCH: “Above the clouds at sunrise” 1849 - oil on canvas, 69.2- 102.2 cm. - The Warner Collection

Frederick Edwin Church is admirer and disciple of Thomas Cole, to whom dedicates many of his works. Church represents the culmination of the Hudson River School : he possesses the love for the landscape of Cole, the romantic lyricism of Durand, and the grandiloquence of Bierstadt, but being braver and technically more gifted than anyone with them. Church is without any doubt one of the best landscape painters of all time, perhaps only surpassed by Turner and some impressionists and postimpressionists like Monet or Cézanne. At his maturity, the American landscape remains short to Church, and he paints exotic masterpieces like “Cotopaxi” , “Heart of the Andes” or the “Above the clouds at sunrise” shown here.

A landscape with no land. Or perhaps an airscape. “Above the clouds at sunrise” is one of the most original and audacious landscapes ever painted. Church has represented the sunrise at the top of a mountain, “above the clouds”, in such a way that all the landscape located beyond a certain distance is replaced by an immense cloud bank. The natural elements located near the observer, in addition to the oneiric pink fog, embraces the horizon view, whereas one of the trees, located exactly in front of the sun, highlights the presence of this one on the painting. Church has not represented a particular landscape, but rather the magical and incredible light of the sunrise.