The several masses are parts of one immense berg. ![]() “The spectator … standing on the ice, in a bay of the berg. The unconventional landscape of ice, water, and sky drew interest and praise, but the American Civil War, which began the same year, reduced the demand for further cultural events.Īn 1860 study for “The Icebergs” by Frederic Edwin Church – Kennedy Galleries, New YorkĪ broadside was prepared to orient exhibition visitors to the painting: “The Icebergs” was first displayed in New York City in 1861, with a 25 cent admittance to the one-painting show, and similar exhibitions were held in Boston and London followed. These blue veins of sapphire are shown at left. Church observed that newly frozen water within the cracks of icebergs produced a striking blue color. The melted water in the foreground is a light blue, and small water deposits are emerald beneath. Vague humanoid profiles or skull-like ice blocks may be decerned in the iceberg shapes, especially in the top left corner. The shapes in the icebergs can be imagined as forming profiles of human-like faces. The composition is partially abstract, leaving much to the imagination.Īn 1860 study for “The Icebergs” by Frederic Edwin Church – Cooper-Hewitt Museum Church’s challenge was to produce a grand landscape painting of an environment limited in color and life. The painting is composed of several icebergs in the afternoon light of the Arctic. ![]() The boulder and ice around the grotto are painted with impasto, while Church otherwise conceals his brushstrokes. ![]() The boulder symbolizes the geological debates of the day on the theory of “continental lift.” It serves as a reminder that the iceberg once had contact with the land. The boulder rests on the ice shelf above the grotto and stains the ice with a rust color. The afternoon sun casts shadows in blues, purples, and pinks, and the ice and water interact in complex reflections, especially by the grotto.Ī marooned ship’s mast point to a boulder and grotto. The Icebergs’ play of light is highly detailed. His 1859 voyage to the North Atlantic around Newfoundland and Labrador inspired this composition. “The Icebergs” by Frederic Edwin Church is an imaginative depiction of composite views and many sketches to convey an ice-based landscape painting.
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