The works of American painter Frederick Edwin Church (1826-1900) marked the culmination of romantic landscape painting in America and the final great expression of the group of artists identified as the Hudson River school.

Frederick Edwin Church was born in Hartford, Conn., into a prominent family. At an early age he decided to become an artist. He studied for a short time with Benjamin Coe, then went to Catskill, N.Y., in 1844 to study with Thomas Cole, one of the foremost painters of the Hudson River school. Though Cole died 4 years later, Church had already formed his style in the tradition of his master. He wished to travel and he read with interest Kosmos, a book by the young German scientist Alexander von Humboldt. This description of a 4-year trip to unexplored areas of Latin America inspired Church, who went to Ecuador and Colombia in 1853 and again in...