Sketch of Rain Clouds
Classification
Drawing
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Louis P. Church
Accession Number
1917-4-1175
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), a preeminent American landscape painter of the Hudson River School, celebrated for his dramatic depictions of nature's grandeur and atmospheric effects. Created between 1860 and 1868, *Sketch of Rain Clouds* a drawing that captures the fleeting drama of stormy skies, likely made as a quick study from life—a technique central to Church's methodical process of building monumental canvases. This intimate work, now in the Smithsonian American Art Museum's collection (gift of Louis P Church), reflects the Romantic era's fascination with the sublime power of weath...