Frederic Church and the Landscape Oil Sketch

The American painter Frederic Church (1826-1900) rose to fame as a member of the Hudson River School, which inaugurated the great tradition of American landscape painting.

He was also a leading proponent of the landscape oil sketch made rapidly out-of-doors, in front of the subject.

Such informal and spontaneous works often served as preparatory studies for large-scale paintings, and played a vital role in landscape practice and pedagogy in both Europe and America from the mid-19th century to around 1900.

This book features some thirty sketches Church made in the United States, Jamaica, Europe, and the Middle East over the course of his career.

A number of them come from Olana, the artist's magnificent home overlooking the Hudson River and now a New York State historic site.

An introductory essay by Andrew Wilton is accompanied by detailed commentaries on the featured works.