Skip to main content

Chimborazo

Maker (American, 1826 - 1900)
ClassificationsPAINTINGS
Date1864
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionscanvas: 48 x 84 in. (121.9 x 213.4 cm.) frame: 65 3/4 × 102 × 6 in. (167 × 259.1 × 15.2 cm.)
Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation
Label TextFrederic Church journeyed to South America in 1853 and 1857, following in the footsteps of Alexander von Humboldt, the leading naturalist of the generation before Charles Darwin. The resulting paintings, including Chimborazo and The Heart of the Andes (now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), embody Humboldt's theory of the interdependence of natural systems. Church takes the viewer on a virtual trip from the torrid, tropical Ecuadorian rainforest to the temperate grasslands in the center, to the frigid, ice-clad peak of Mount Chimborazo, which hovers over the scene. In Humboldt's science, these three ecosystems depended on one another.

Church painted plants in the foreground with such detail that botanists today can identify many specific species. Although committed to scientific accuracy, Church presents a composite view of the area around Mount Chimborazo based on extensive field studies. Rather than simply transcribe nature, Church wished to convey the whole experience of Ecuador to the viewer.

The recreation by Eli Wilner and Company of the painting's original frame was funded by a gift from Steve Martin.
Status
On view
Object number89.1
Exhibitions
Sandy Hook
Frederick Stuart Church
1889
Object number: 86.17
Winter Sheldrake
Edwin Walter Dickinson
1929
Object number: 2005.17
Toward Mrs. Driscoll's
Edwin Walter Dickinson
1928
Object number: 2005.26
Goose
Edwin Henry Landseer
1837
Object number: 63.52.123
Photography © 2014 Fredrik Nilsen
Frederic Remington
1895
Object number: 91.249
Theatrical Costume
Arthur Frederics
1884 (?)
Object number: 72.29
Standing Female Figure Drapery Study
Baron Frederic Leighton
n.d.
Object number: 65.15
Woman and Child in a Farm Yard
Baron Frederic Leighton
1873 (?)
Object number: 71.70
Phoenicians Bartering with Britons
Baron Frederic Leighton
n.d.
Object number: 78.7
Studies for Romola
Baron Frederic Leighton
n.d.
Object number: 77.31
Study of a Girl
Baron Frederic Leighton
n.d.
Object number: 59.55.844
Approach to La Crosse, Wis. From Below
Edwin Whitefield
n.d.
Object number: 91.90