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We look across a palm-tree lined river winding into the distance before a monumental, snow-covered mountain at the center of the composition in this horizontal landscape. The spit of land along the riverbank in the lower left corner is filled with lush vegetation, including waving ferns, vines, leafy trees, and palm trees. At the bottom center of the composition, along the shoreline, a boat with a pointed prow is occupied by three people wearing white pants. Two of the men are bare-chested and the third wears a red shirt. The boat is covered with a rounded, hut-like structure and tendrils of white paint, perhaps indicating smoke from a fire, waft up in front of the opening to the structure. The placid river widens beyond the boat and across from us, the distant shore is lined with white buildings with brown thatched roofs and a white church with two spires and a red tile roof. Trees around and beyond the buildings fill in the space before brown hills that eventually lead to the snowy peaks of the central mountain. The earthy moss and sage green and tawny brown of the vegetation and river closer to us fades to pale caramel and pinkish-tan in the hazy distance. A few birds fly across the pale blue sky to our left, and wisps of light gray clouds float in from our right. The artist signed and dated the work in the lower left corner: “Church 1854.”

Tamaca Palms, 1854

Frederic Edwin Church

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 71

Frederic Church noted that this was “the first South American picture [he] ever painted.” He made it a year after visiting present-day Colombia and Ecuador, traveling through lush river valleys and climbing snow-capped volcanoes. The title names a type of palm that Church sketched during his travels and carefully depicted on the left side of this painting.

Church went on to create many more tropical landscapes. His work in documenting this region’s natural diversity was inspired by German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt’s studies of South American botany and ecology.

Dive deeper

Frederic Edwin Church and his fellow 19th-century landscape painters—many of whom were known as Hudson River School painters in accordance with the oft-depicted locale—extolled not only the natural wonders of the northeastern United States, but also those of the American West, South America, Europe, and the Near East, providing armchair travelers with views of exotic scenery most had never seen.

In 1853, Church embarked on a trip to South America, inspired in large part by the writings of prominent German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859). The artist was particularly interested in the scientist's epic volume Cosmos: Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe. Von Humboldt encouraged artists to record—and therefore share with viewers—the locale's diverse tropical features, for he understood the icy mountaintops, arid deserts, and steamy rainforests as evidence of a divine harmony in nature. Church heeded Von Humboldt's call, retracing his route through the Andes and recording in meticulous pencil and oil sketches details of nature and life along the Magdalena River in Colombia. Upon returning to his New York studio, he created Tamaca Palms using these studies, including those of the tamaca species of palm and the boat in the foreground, known as a champan or bongo. His attention to minute detail in the canvas shows the indelible influence of his teacher, Thomas Cole (1801–1848); moreover, it led one critic to deem Church "the very painter Humboldt so longs for in his writings."

Object Data

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 67.9 × 91.3 cm (26 3/4 × 35 15/16 in.)

framed: 103.5 × 127.6 × 14.6 cm (40 3/4 × 50 1/4 × 5 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Corcoran Collection (Gift of William Wilson Corcoran)

Accession Number

2014.79.11

Artists / Makers

Frederic Edwin Church (painter) American, 1826 - 1900

Image Use

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Detail Information

Inscription

lower left: CHURCH 1854

Provenance

Painted by the artist for Abraham M. Cozzens [1811-1868], New York;[1] (his estate sale, Clinton Hall Art Galleries, New York, 22 May 1868, no. 25, as The Andes); Withers,[2] possibly buying for William Wilson Corcoran [1798-1888], Washington; gift 10 May 1869 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.

[1] In a letter the artist wrote to Corcoran director William Macleod, dated 27 December 1873, Church writes: "The tropical scene which I [Church] painted for Mr. Cozzens was the first South American picture I ever painted and of course was painted many years ago -- in fact an early effort. It was a composition characteristic of Magdalena River scenery in New Granada. I trust that there is something better from my hand to represent me in the Corcoran Gallery." Corcoran Gallery of Art Archives, Special Collections Research Center, George Washington University Libraries, Washington, DC: COR RG 2.0, Director's records; Series 1, MacLeod, Barbarin and McGuire records, 1869-1915; letter 157.

[2] A copy of the sale catalogue at the Getty Research Institute is annotated with this buyer's name; copy in NGA curatorial files. He was possibly buying for William W. Corcoran, as Corcoran Gallery of Art records indicate Corcoran purchased the painting from "the collection of the late A. Cozzens;" see NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Corcoran Gallery of Art
Corcoran, William Wilson
Cozzens, Abraham M.

Exhibition History

1855: Thirtieth Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, 1855, no. 63.

1940: A Souvenir of Romanticism in America; or An Elegant Exposition of Taste and Fashion from 1812 to 1865, Baltimore Museum of Art, 1940, unnumbered checklist, as Scenery on the Magdalena River.

1948: Romantic America, Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Ohio, 1948, no. 8.

1966: Past and Present: 250 Years of American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 15 April-30 September 1966, unpublished checklist, as Scenery of the Magdalena River, New Granada, South America.

1967: The Painter and the New World, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1967, no. 334.

1976: Corcoran [The American Genius]. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1976, unnumbered catalogue, as Scenery of the Magdalena River New Granada, South America.

1979: Close Observation: Selected Oil Sketches by Frederic E. Church, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York, 1979-1980, not on checklist.

1980: American Luminism, Adams Davidson Galleries, Washington, 1980, no. 21.

1989: Frederic Edwin Church, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1989-1990, no. 22.

1996: Louis Remy Mignot: A Southern Painter Abroad, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; National Academy of Design, New York, 1996-1997, unnumbered catalogue.

2005: Encouraging American Genius: Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 2005-2007, checklist no. 25.

2008: The American Evolution: A History through Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2008, unpublished checklist.

2009: American Paintings from the Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 6 June-18 October 2009, unpublished checklist.

2013: American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013-28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.

Bibliography

2011: Kelly, Franklin. "Frederic Edwin Church, Tamaca Palms." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 24, 108-109, 262, repro.