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Aurora Borealis
1865
Frederic Edwin Church
Born: Hartford, Connecticut 1826
Died: New York, New York 1900
oil on canvas
56 x 83 1/2 in. (142.3 x 212.2 cm)
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Gift of Eleanor Blodgett
1911.4.1
Smithsonian American Art Museum
1st Floor, West Wing
The ship and sled team in this image belonged to Frederic Church's friend, polar explorer Dr. Isaac Hayes. Hayes had led an Arctic expedition in 1860, and gave his sketches from the trip to the artist as inspiration for this painting. Hayes returned from his voyage to find the country in the thick of the Civil War, and in a rousing speech vowed that "God willing, I trust yet to carry the flag of the great Republic, with not a single star erased from its glorious Union, to the extreme northern limits of the earth." Viewers understood Church's painting of the Aurora Borealis (also known as the northern lights) as a portent of disaster, a divine omen relating to the conflict.
Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006
Read research notes for Aurora Borealis. (pdf)
Keywords
Landscape - phenomenon - aurora
Landscape - weather - snow
Waterscape - boat
Waterscape - coast
Waterscape - sea
painting
paint - oil
fabric - canvas
About Frederic Edwin Church
Born: Hartford, Connecticut 1826 Died: New York, New York 1900
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