Church, Frederic Edwin Twilight in the Wilderness 1860 Oil on canvas 40 x 64 in. (101.6 x 162.6 cm) The Cleveland Museum of Art

This is only a thumbnail image. Use the Image Viewer to study the much larger full-sized image. The Image Viewer allows you to resize the image to fit your screen, display as a thumbnail, zoom in up to 200%, or even change the background color. For information regarding possible commercial licensing of this image from Scala Group, Art Resource or Bridgeman Art Library, click here. Text from "Sister Wendy's American Masterpieces": "Some paintings seem to bear their nationality on their faces. Church's Twilight in the Wilderness could only, I feel, be American. Church specialized in works inspired by the sheer vastness of the American continent. He went to South America, and painted the Andes; he traveled north, and gloried in the Niagara Falls; and he moved on to the huge silences of the icebergs. He held one-painting shows of these immense canvases, which people flocked to see, encountering these marvels of nature for the first time. Here, he painted the east coast: his own Maine. "What I find fascinating is that everybody who looked on this magnificent scene and published a reaction seems to have a different interpretation. Some homed in on the eagle, up there on the left, and saw a symbol of American power. Some noticed where the branches cross, and saw a suggestion of Christianity. Others, noting the absence of human beings, claimed the pines as our surrogates - standing tall and strong, as the frontier expects. I must say that the pines most evident are somewhat twisted and scruffy, which gives the landscape a remarkable air of conviction; this is no ideal place, but truly what Church looked down upon. The one interpretation that I find sustainable hinges on the painting's date. In 1860, the menace in the sky would have been all too real. The Civil War would soon break out, and the blood-red tide would spread throughout the land."