Painting Maine
Tomorrow, the Portland Museum of Art in Maine opens a new exhibition of oil sketches by Frederic Edwin Church. Maine Sublime: Frederic Edwin Church’s Landscapes of Mount Desert and Mount Katahdin focuses on Church’s trips to Maine and the exquisite oil sketches he created there.
In 1850, the landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church took his first trip to Maine after viewing a portfolio of drawings by his teacher Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School. His initial journey sparked an affair with Maine that persisted throughout his career. Church painted the coastlines, rocky islands, and inland hills of the northeastern state in romantic and majestic styles, establishing his place as a central figure in the Hudson River School.
The inland Mount Katahdin and the island of Mount Desert were two places in Maine that Church especially liked to explore. These natural landmarks are the setting for the twenty-three oil paintings showcased in the Portland Museum of Art’s exhibition.
The seventy-six-page exhibition catalogue was produced by Marquand Books and designed by John Hubbard. The book features more than sixty-five color illustrations and includes an essay by John Wilmerding of Princeton University.
To learn more about the exhibition Maine Sublime, visit the Portland Museum of Art. To purchase a copy of the catalogue, visit Cornell University Press.
photography by Jeremy Linden
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