A Country Home

Date1854

Maker Frederic Edwin Church born Hartford, Connecticut,1826; died New York City,1900

Label Text"'Evening After a Storm' displays a more dramatic sunset effect, and 'New England Landscape' has greater variety in its scenic elements, but 'A Country Home' achieves a more unified whole. 'His earlier efforts were really cloud-pictures,' one critic noted in praising this work in 1854, adding that Church's new painting was remarkably different, not in subject, but in overall effect: 'All that it contains-and there are no striking subjects introduced-lies under the same atmosphere.' 'A Country Home' was not a change of direction for the artist; it was a refinement of an idea he had been developing since 1849. Perhaps he considered the work his chance to make a summary statement on American scenery, anticipating that he would soon move on to paint other landscapes. In the summer of 1853, Church visited South America. By 1860, his name would be linked to that very different New World realm.

A Country Home was one of the most acclaimed paintings of Frederic Church's early career. Why? What inspired Church to paint A Country Home? What might the subject have meant to the artist, a young painter from Hartford, Connecticut, newly established on the art scene in New York in the early 1850s when he conceived of this picture? And what made this painting so appealing to the public at that time? To learn more about the artist's inspiration and the appreciation that viewers have had for this painting in the nineteenth century and today, follow the paths of inquiry that we offer here.

Object number65.80

ProvenanceGeneral Joseph Gardner Swift (1783-1865), Geneva, New York; to his son-in-law Peter Richards, Jr. (1811-1892), Brooklyn and Geneva, New York, by 1862-1892; bequeathed to his daughter, Margaret W. Richards (d. 1923), Geneva, New York; to her grand niece, Anna Robeson Baker (Mrs. Paul C. Carmichael, 1900-1975), Seattle, Washington, 1926-1965; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1965

Photo CreditPhoto: Paul Macapia

The hand of man generally improves a landscape. The earth has been given to him, and his presence in Eden is natural. He gives life and spirit to the garden.

The Home Book of the Picturesque, 1851

Exhibition HistoryNew York, New York, National Academy of Design, Twenty-Ninth Annual Exhibition, Mar. 22-Apr. 25, 1854. Cat. no. 64 (as A Country Home, no owner given). New York, New York, Artists' Fund Society of New York, Gallery of Fine Art Institute, Third Annual Exhibition, Oct. 1862. Cat. no. 201 (as Country Home, owned by P. Richards, Jr.). Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue Art Museum, 17th, 18th, 19th Century Western Art: An Exhibit of Selected Portions from the Collections of the Seattle Art Museum, Oct. 30 - Nov. 24, 1975. No. cat. no. (as Landscape). New York, New York, Coe Kerr Gallery, American Luminism, Oct. 25 - Nov. 25, 1978. Text by William H. Gerdts. Cat. no. 2 (as Landscape). Fort Worth, Texas, Amon Carter Museum, The Early Landscapes of Frederic Edwin Church, 1845-1854, Mar. 9 - Apr. 29, 1984. Text by Franklin Kelly and Gerald L. Carr. Cat. no. 17. pp. 122, 125-127, reproduced p. 125 and pl. 8. Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Frederic Edwin Church. Oct. 8, 1989 - Jan. 28, 1990. Text by Franklin Kelly, et al. Cat. no. 19, pp. 48, 161, 165, 201, reproduced p. 79. Vienna, Austria, Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere, America: The New World in 19th-century Painting, Mar. 17- June 20, 1999. Text ed. Stephen Koja. Cat. no. 39, p. 87, reproduced. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The American Landscape's 'Quieter Spirit': Early Paintings by Frederic Edwin Church, June 25 - Oct. 16, 2005. Text by Patricia Junker. No cat. no., pp. 3, 18-21, reproduced fig. 1. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, American Art: The Stories We Carry, Oct. 20, 2022 - ongoing.Published References"The Fine Arts. Exhibition of the National Academy. (Second Article)." New-York Daily Tribune, Saturday, Apr. 22, 1854: p. 6. "Academy of Design. (Seventh Article)." New York Evening Mirror, Apr. 18, 1854. "Fine Arts. National Academy of Design." The Albion 13, no. 15 (Apr.15, 1854): p. 177. "Editorial Notes---Fine Arts, The National Academy." Putnam's Monthly 3, no. 17 (May 1854): p. 567. [Clark, Lewis Gaylord]. "Editor's Table [review of the NAD exhibition]." The Knickerbocker 43, no. 5 (May 1854): p. 540. [Curtis, George W]. "Editor's Easy Chair [review of NAD exhibition]." Harper's New Monthly Magazine 8, no. 48 (May 1854): p. 846. Huntington, David C. Frederic Edwin Church. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1966; p. 30. [Owner incorrectly given as Mrs. Arthur Delafield Smith, Arlington, Virginia]. Selected Works: Seattle Art Museum. Seattle, Washington: Seattle Art Museum, 1991; p. 110, reproduced. Kelly, Franklin. Frederic Edwin Church and the National Landscape. Washington, D.C. and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988; pp. 75-77, 78. 81, reproduced p. 50, pl. 8. Mathes, Charles. Treasures of American Museums. New York: Mallard Press, 1991; p. 237, fig. 2. Cooper, James. Knights of the Brush: The Hudson River School and the Moral Landscape. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2000; p. 6, repro. Carr, Gerald L. "Home by the Lake." In American Paintings XII, edited by Bruce Weber, p. 21. New York: Berry-Hill Galleries, 2005. Ledes, Alison Eckardt. "Church in Sharp Focus." The Magazine Antiques (September 2005): pp. 20-22, reproduced p. 20. Junker, Patricia. "The American Landscape's 'Quieter Spirit': Early Paintings by Frederic Edwin Church." SAMconnects [magazine of the Seattle Art Museum] 19, no. 4 (Fall 2005): 14-15, reproduced fig. 1. Hackett, Regina. "SAM's New Territory: 'Quieter Spirit' Speaks Volumes about American Art's Future at Museum." Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 26, 2005: section E, pp. 1, 3. 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die. London: Quintet Publishing Limited, 2006; p. 415. Ishikawa, Chiyo et al. Seattle Art Museum Downtown. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 2007; reproduced p. 56. Seattle Art Museum: Bridging Cultures. London: Scala Publishers Ltd. for the Seattle Art Museum, 2007; p. 24, reproduced. Junker, Patricia. "A Sense of Place: American Art and the Seattle Art Museum." The Magazine Antiques (November 2008): p. 110, fig. 3, p. 110. Cartwright, Derrick. "Introduction." In Albert Bierstadt, Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast: A Superb Vision of Dreamland, by Patricia Junker, in association with Beauty and Bounty: American Art in the Age of Exploration. Seattle, Washington: Seattle Art Museum in association with University of Washington Press, 2011; pp. 6-7, reproduced [not in exhibition]. [Carr, Gerald]. "Frederic Edwin Church; A New England Lake," entry in Christie's, New York, American Art, November 21, 2017, lot 44, pp. 89, reproduced.

Credit LineGift of Anna Robeson Baker Carmichael

Dimensions32 x 51 in. (81.3 x 129.5 cm.)

MediumOil on canvas