Cotopaxi (painting)

Cotopaxi
ArtistFrederic Edwin Church
Year1862 (1862)
MovementLandscape painting
SubjectCotopaxi
DimensionsUnframed: 48 × 85 in. (121.9 × 215.9 cm), Framed: 66 5/8 in. × 103 in. × 6 1/4 in. (169.2 × 261.6 × 15.9 cm)
LocationDetroit Institute of Arts, Detroit
OwnerDetroit Institute of Arts

Cotopaxi is an 1862 oil painting by American artist Frederic Edwin Church, a member of the Hudson River School. The painting depicts Cotopaxi, an active volcano that is also the second highest peak in modern-day Ecuador, spewing smoke and ash across a colorful sunrise.[1] The work was commissioned by well-known philanthropist and collector James Lenox and was first exhibited in New York City in 1863.[2] Cotopaxi was met with great acclaim, seen by some as a "parable" of the Civil War, then raging in the American South, with its casting of light against darkness in a vast tropical landscape.[1] Church first depicted Cotopaxi beginning in 1853 during his first of several travels to South America, forming a series of at least 10 paintings on the subject during his lifetime.[2] Cotopaxi has been called by some art historians the "apex" of the Cotopaxi series[2] or Church's "ultimate interpretation" of the eponymous volcano.[3]

Cotopaxi is currently exhibited by the Detroit Institute of Arts,[1] while other members of the series are housed in various museums and private collections, including the New Britain Museum of American Art,[4] Smithsonian American Art Museum,[5] Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,[6] Art Institute of Chicago,[7] and Yale University Art Gallery.[8]

  1. ^ a b c "Frederic Edwin Church : Cotopaxi, 1862 : oil on canvas". Dia.org. Retrieved November 29, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c Manthorne, Katherine (1985). Creation & Renewal: Views of Cotopaxi by Frederic Edwin Church. Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 7.
  3. ^ Kelly, Franklin; Gould, Stephen Jay; Ryan, James Anthony; Rindge, Debora (1989). Frederic Edwin Church. National Gallery of Art and Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 61.
  4. ^ "Cotopaxi, Ecuador". NBMAA. Retrieved November 18, 2023.
  5. ^ "Cotopaxi | Smithsonian American Art Museum". americanart.si.edu. Retrieved November 18, 2023.
  6. ^ "Cotopaxi | All Works | The MFAH Collections". emuseum.mfah.org. Retrieved November 18, 2023.
  7. ^ Church, Frederic Edwin (1857), View of Cotopaxi, retrieved November 18, 2023
  8. ^ "View of Cotopaxi | Yale Center For British Art". interactive.britishart.yale.edu. Retrieved November 18, 2023.