Konigssee
Frederic Edwin CHURCH
(American, 1826-1900)
Konigssee
Dateca. 1868
Mediumoil on paper mounted on canvas
Dimensionsoverall: 13 1/8 x 20 in. (33.3 x 50.8 cm)
frame: 18 7/8 x 26 1/4 x 1 7/8 in. (47.9 x 66.7 x 4.8 cm)
ClassificationPAINTINGS
Credit LineSBMA, Gift of Mrs. Lockwood de Forest
Object number1984.53.4
Subject(s)
- lake
- lakes
- landscape
- cliff
- cliffs
- boat
Collection
- 19th century American
- American
Sub-Collection(s)
- Hudson River School
- Luminism
- American
On View
On viewLabel TextThe
naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) contended that landscape
paintings, though based in direct observation of nature, must be “fertilized by
the powers of the mind” in order to achieve a “grander style of heroic
painting.” Perhaps no other 19th-century American landscape artist realized
this ideal more fully than Frederic Edwin Church. In accordance with Humboldt’s
recommendations, Church made a point of traveling to Königssee in Bavaria near
the Austrian border, in order to capture the wondrous beauty of its glassy
Alpine lake, surrounded by massive peaks. Admirers marveled at Church’s
unrivaled color memory, as instanced by the accuracy with which he described
the rocks, misty peaks, and pristine lake of Königssee.