The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 17, 2024

Storm in the Mountains

Storm in the Mountains

1847
(American, 1826–1900)
America, 19th century
oil on canvas
Framed: 98.7 x 86.4 x 9.2 cm (38 7/8 x 34 x 3 5/8 in.); Unframed: 75.5 x 62.8 cm (29 3/4 x 24 3/4 in.); Former: 94.5 x 81.5 x 9 cm (37 3/16 x 32 1/16 x 3 9/16 in.)
Gift of various donors by exchange and Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1969.52
Location: 206 American Landscape

Did You Know?

Church's spectacular home and studio is preserved as a New York State Historical Site.

Description

Dominating this composition is a lightning-blasted tree embodying nature's awe-inspiring power and endless cycle of life and death. A popular motif because of these associations, the blasted tree was favored by many landscape painters like Church, who prominently featured it here.
  • Sold to E. G. Merrick, Clayton, NY (in family until 1967)-(Eldridge Gerry Merrick, E. G. Merrick II, Mrs. John P. Nevins (daughter), West Brattleboro, Vermont); Adams Davidson and Company, Washington, D. C. 1967; Hirschl and Adler, N. Y. Sold to CMA and the CMA's Prendergast The Road to the Village, New Hampshire, La Farge's Choir, and Durand's Scene among the Berkshire Hills, 10 May 1969.
  • "Visions of Landscape East and West." Asia Vol. 4, No. 5 (January/February 1982): pp. 24-29. Reproduced: p. 29
    Carr, Gerald L. Frederic Edwin Church: Catalogue Raisonné of Works of Art at Olana State Historic Site. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Reproduced: p. 70, fig. 27
    Franklin, David. The Cleveland Museum of Art. London: Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd., 2012. Reproduced: p. 52 - 53
  • Columbus, Ohio, Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, A Nation’s Legacy: 150 Years of American Art from Ohio Collections; (19 January - 15 March 1992), traveled to Tokyo, Isetan Museum (9 April - 5 May 1992), Yamaguchi, The Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art (12 May- 21 June 1992), Fukushima, the Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art (27 June - 2 August 1992), Takamatsu, the Takamatsu City Museum of Art (7 August- 6 September 1992) and Osaka, Daimaru Museum Umeda (23 September- 5 October 1992); cat. no. 4, repr. p. 29, p. 174.
    Washington, D. C., National Gallery of Art, Frederic Edwin Church (8 October 1989- 18 March 1990), p. 36-7, 40, cat. no. 2.
    Fort Worth, TX, Amon Carter Museum, The Early Landscapes of Frederic Edwin Church (9 March - 29 April 1984); p. 43, 86-7. illus. p. 87 as cat. 4; Blasted Tree (Storm in the Mountains).
    Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).
    Year in Review: 1969. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 27-February 22, 1970).
    New York, American Art Union 1847, no. 120; listed as the property of E. G. Merick of Clayton, NY in Mary Bartlett Cowdrey, American Academy of Fine Arts and American Art-Union Exhibition Record 1816-1852, (New York, 1953), p. 70.
  • {{cite web|title=Storm in the Mountains|url=false|author=Frederic Edwin Church|year=1847|access-date=17 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1969.52