弗雷德里克·埃德温·丘奇

1826-1900 American

戏剧性全景美式风景

弗雷德里克·埃德温·丘奇是一位出生于康涅狄格州哈特福德的美国风景画家。他是美国哈德逊河画派风景画家的核心人物，以绘制大型风景画而闻名，作品中常描绘山脉、瀑布和日落。丘奇的画作强调逼真的细节、戏剧性的光线以及全景式视野。他在纽约市举办单幅画作展览，向付费且常常为之着迷的观众展示其部分重要作品。在其鼎盛时期，他是美国最著名的画家之一。 Frederic Edwin Church was a direct descendant of Richard Church, a Puritan pioneer from England who accompanied Thomas Hooker on the original journey through the wilderness from Massachusetts to what would become Hartford, Connecticut. Church was the son of Eliza (1796–1883) and Joseph Church (1793–1876). Frederic had two sisters and no surviving brothers. His father was successful in business as a silversmith and jeweler and was a director at several financial firms. His mother’s brother was Adrian Janes, who owned an iron foundry that constructed the U.S. Capitol Dome. The family’s wealth allowed Frederic to pursue his interest in art from a very early age. In 1844, aged 18, Church became the pupil of landscape artist Thomas Cole in Catskill, New York after Daniel Wadsworth, a family neighbor and founder of the Wadsworth Athenaeum, introduced the two. Church studied with him for two years; by this time his talent was more than evident. Cole wrote that Church had "the finest eye for drawing in the world". During his time with Cole, he travelled around New England and New York to make sketches, visiting East Hampton, Long Island, Catskill Mountain House, The Berkshires, New Haven, and Vermont. His first recorded sale of a painting was in 1846 to Hartford’s Wadsworth Athenaeum for $130; it was a pastoral depicting Hooker’s journey in 1636. In 1848, he was elected as the youngest Associate of the National Academy of Design and was promoted to full member the following year. He took his own students including Walter Launt Palmer, William James Stillman and Jervis McEntee. 《新英格兰风景》（1851年）是丘奇的“第一幅真正的复合风景画”——它利用来自不同地点的素描，创造出比科尔作品中更为细致且空间结构更复杂的景观。浪漫主义在19世纪初的英国和法国盛行，作为对启蒙时代理性主义的反动。浪漫主义时期的艺术家常常在理想化的场景中描绘自然，展现自然的丰富与美丽，有时强调其宏大的规模。这一传统在丘奇的作品中得以延续，他通过极其细致的艺术手法，将未受干扰的自然理想化。对自然的强调通过低矮的水平线和占据主导地位的天空得到加强。丘奇通常“隐藏”他的笔触，使画面表面光滑，画家的“个性”似乎缺席。 丘奇是哈德逊河画派第二代艺术家的产物，该画派是由他的老师托马斯·科尔创立的美国风景画运动。科尔和丘奇都是虔诚的新教徒，后者的信仰在其绘画作品中发挥了作用，尤其是他早期的画作。哈德逊河画派的作品以聚焦传统田园风光（特别是卡茨基尔山脉）及其浪漫主义特质为特征。他们试图捕捉一个正在迅速消失的、未开发的美国的原始现实主义，以及对自然之美的欣赏。他的美国边疆风景画展现了“19世纪中叶美国的扩张主义和乐观前景”。丘奇在绘画题材上与科尔有所不同：他更偏爱自然且常常宏伟的场景，而非科尔倾向于寓言的风格——尽管人们正越来越多地从主题和意义的角度重新审视丘奇的作品。 普鲁士探险家和科学家亚历山大·冯·洪堡对丘奇产生了重大影响。在《宇宙》一书中，洪堡提出了科学、自然界和精神关切相互联系的观点。丘奇拥有的《宇宙》一书专门用一章来论述风景画；洪堡赋予视觉艺术家在“科学地”描绘自然多样性方面的重要角色，尤其是在新世界。随着查尔斯·达尔文的进化论在19世纪60年代开始颠覆洪堡的统一性思想，艺术史学家研究了丘奇的绘画如何回应这一对其世界观的冲击。 英国艺术评论家约翰·罗斯金对丘奇产生了另一项重要而深远的影响。在罗斯金的《现代画家》中，他强调对自然的细致观察：“风景画家的当务之急是以不减的注意力深入至最细微的细节。每一类岩石、每一种土壤、每一种云朵形态，都必须以同样的勤勉加以研究，并以同样的精确度予以呈现。”这种对细节的关注必须与艺术家的诠释、印象和想象力相结合，才能成就伟大的艺术。尽管丘奇的画作在19世纪50年代和60年代广受赞誉，但一些评论家认为他的细致全景画缺乏想象力或诗意。乔治·W·谢尔顿在其1879年出版的《美国画家》中论及丘奇的画布作品时写道：“几乎无需……解释其主要缺陷是什么，因为至此，几乎所有有鉴赏力的美国艺术爱好者都已认识到这一缺陷。该缺陷在于以牺牲情感的统一性与力量为代价，过度细化细节……它们忠实而美丽，但在艺术的诗意与韵味方面，本可以更加丰富。自然的高阶与精神真理才是风景艺术的真正归宿。” 丘奇的一些画作与光色主义风景画风格相关，并对其产生了影响。光色主义艺术往往强调水平线条，使用非漫射光，并隐藏笔触，使画家的存在感或“个性”对观者而言不那么明显。一本展览图录认为，丘奇的《热带早晨》和《荒野暮色》突显了该风格“精细的绘图技巧和浓烈的色彩”，而《科托帕希》和《帕特农神庙》则“在其全景式结构中体现了该风格”。尽管如此，丘奇并不被视为主要的光色主义艺术家。 丘奇的职业生涯始于绘制纽约和新英格兰地区的经典哈德逊河画派场景，但到1850年，他已定居纽约。他在美国艺术联盟、波士顿艺术俱乐部以及（对一位年轻艺术家而言最令人印象深刻的）国家设计学院展出自己的作品。他的创作方法是在工作室中根据自然写生草图完成画作。在职业生涯早期，丘奇的风格让人联想到他的老师托马斯·科尔，并体现了哈德逊河画派的创始风格。随着风格的演进，他逐渐偏离了科尔的方法：他以更精细的细节作画，构图在形式上更加大胆，有时还带有戏剧性的光影效果。 Church quickly earned a reputation as a traveler-artist, with early domestic painting and sketching trips to the White Mountains, western Massachusetts, the Catskills, Hartford, Conn, Niagara, Virginia, Kentucky, and Maine. He made two trips to South America in 1853 and 1857 and stayed predominantly in Quito, visiting the volcanoes and cities of modern day Colombia and Ecuador, and crossing the isthmus of Panama. The first trip was with businessman Cyrus West Field, who financed the voyage, hoping to use Church’s paintings to lure investors to his South American ventures. Church was inspired by Alexander von Humboldt’s exploration of the continent in the early 1800s; Humboldt had challenged artists to portray the "physiognomy" of the Andes. After Humboldt’s Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America was published in 1852, Church jumped at the chance to travel and study in Humboldt’s footsteps. When Church returned to South America in 1857 with painter Louis Rémy Mignot, he added to his sketches of the area. After both trips, Church had produced a number of landscapes of Ecuador and the Andes, such as The Andes of Ecuador (1855), Cayambe (1858), The Heart of the Andes (1859), and Cotopaxi (1862). The Heart of the Andes, Church’s most famous painting, pictures several elements of topography combined into an idealistic, broad portrait of nature. The painting was very large, yet highly detailed; every species of plant and animal is identifiable and numerous climate zones appear at once. 正如他此前对《尼亚加拉》所做的那样，丘奇于1859年在纽约市以单幅画作展览的形式首次展出《安第斯山脉之心》。成千上万的观众付费观赏这幅画，其巨大的落地式画框起到了望向安第斯山脉的窗户的作用。观众坐在长椅上欣赏作品，有时还使用歌剧望远镜以便近距离观看，而丘奇则策略性地布置展厅，利用顶部天窗的光线照亮画作。该作品一经亮相便大获成功。丘奇最终以1万美元的价格将其售出，这在当时是在世美国艺术家作品所创下的最高成交价。 丘奇与著名北极探险家艾萨克·以色列·海斯博士的友谊，激发了这位艺术家对北极地区的兴趣。1859年，丘奇和他的好友路易斯·勒格朗德·诺布尔牧师前往纽芬兰和拉布拉多。这次旅程被记录在诺布尔的著作《与画家同行追寻冰山》（1861年）中，该书在丘奇的画作《冰山》展出前不久出版。 到1860年，丘奇已成为最著名的美国艺术家。在鼎盛时期，丘奇不仅在艺术上取得了成功，在商业上也同样成功。丘奇的艺术作品利润丰厚；据报道，他在1900年去世时身家达50万美元。 In 1861, at the start of the Civil War, Church was inspired to paint Our Banner in the Sky by a sunset featuring red, white, and blue that he believed was a symbol that "the heavens indicated their support for the United States by reflecting the nation’s colors in the setting sun". A lithograph was made from it and sold to benefit the families of Union soldiers. 1863年，他当选为美国艺术与科学院的副院士。 1860年，丘奇在纽约州哈德逊附近购买了一座农场，并娶了伊莎贝尔·莫蒂默·卡恩斯（Isabel Mortimer Carnes，1836年生于俄亥俄州代顿），他是在《安第斯山脉之心》于纽约展出期间与她相识的。他们很快组建了家庭，但两岁的儿子赫伯特和五个月大的女儿艾玛均在1865年3月死于白喉。几个月后，随着南北战争接近尾声，仍沉浸在悲痛中的丘奇与妻子以及一位年轻的艺术家朋友前往牙买加旅行。丘奇进行素描创作，伊莎贝尔则收集了压制的牙买加蕨类植物标本，其中有许多极为壮观的品种。随着1866年弗雷德里克·约瑟夫（Frederic Joseph）的出生，他和妻子开始了新的家庭生活，随后西奥多·温思罗普（Theodore Winthrop）于1869年出生，路易斯·帕尔默（Louis Palmer）于1870年出生，伊莎贝尔·夏洛特（Isabel Charlotte，昵称“Downie”）于1871年出生。 In late 1867, Church began the longest period of travel of his career. That fall he and his family went to Europe, moving through London and Paris fairly quickly. From Marseille they went to Alexandria, Egypt, but Church did not visit the pyramids, perhaps being afraid to leave his family alone. Passing through Jaffa, they arrived at Beirut, where they spent four months. They stayed with American missionaries, including David Stuart Dodge. In February 1868 Church travelled with Dodge to the city of Petra by camel from Jerusalem. There he sketched the Al Khazneh tomb, which became the subject of one of his important later works, El Khasné, Petra (1874). Later that spring the family visited Damascus and Baalbek, then sailed the Aegean Sea with a stop in Constantinople. Back in southern Europe by summer, they wintered in Rome. There were many American artists in Rome that year, and they joined several artist/friends, including Sanford Robinson Gifford, Jervis McEntee and other friends who were also living in Rome. While in Rome, Church learned fresco painting, and made a collection of “Old Masters” paintings. However, apparently Europe on the whole did not seem to interest Church as it did most American artists of the 19th century, many of whom traveled there to experience the Western artistic heritage. Leaving his expanded family in Rome with friends, Frederic made a two-week visit to stay in Athens ended the journey in April 1869. At Athens the Parthenon exceeded all his expectations as the finest single specimen of architecture in the world, and he sketched and painted energetically. The Churches left Rome in May 1869, and made their way home via Paris and England, arriving home by the end of June. 在启程前往那次旅行之前，丘奇购买了位于其哈德逊河畔农田上方山丘顶部的18英亩（7.3公顷）土地，他长期以来一直渴望拥有这片土地，因其可俯瞰哈德逊河和卡茨基尔山脉的壮丽景色。1870年，他在山顶开始建造一座受波斯风格启发的豪宅，家人于1872年夏季搬入该住宅。如今，这座庄园作为奥拉纳州立历史遗址得到保护。在奥拉纳豪宅的早期规划阶段，曾咨询理查德·莫里斯·亨特的意见，但在丘奇夫妇旅行之后，聘请了出生于英国的美国建筑师卡尔弗特·沃克斯来完成该项目。丘奇深度参与了整个过程，甚至亲自绘制了建筑设计草图。这座极具个人色彩且折衷主义的建筑融合了许多他在旅行中汲取的设计理念。在一封当时的信件中，他写道：“本季我修建了约1¾英里的道路，开辟了全新而美丽的景观。通过这种方式，我比在工作室里摆弄画布和颜料能创造出更多、更好的风景画。”在他生命的最后二十年里，他将大量精力投入于奥拉纳。 丘奇作为艺术家取得了巨大的成功。在他生命的最后几十年里，疾病限制了他的绘画能力。到1876年，丘奇患上了类风湿性关节炎，使得绘画变得困难。他最终用左手作画，并继续创作作品，尽管速度慢了很多。他仍然像科尔之前那样教授绘画。他的两名学生是沃尔特·劳恩特·帕尔默（他亲密的朋友埃拉斯特斯·道·帕尔默的儿子）和霍华德·拉塞尔·巴特勒。晚年，他经常在墨西哥过冬，并在那里教导巴特勒。 丘奇在奥拉纳和墨西哥度过时光，较少受到纽约市艺术潮流的影响。他在纽约保留了一间画室，直至19世纪80年代，但通常转租给马丁·约翰逊·希德。他的妻子伊莎贝尔多年患病，于1899年5月12日在已故友人兼赞助人威廉·H·奥斯本位于纽约公园大道的家中去世。不到一年后，即1900年4月7日，73岁的丘奇也在奥斯本遗孀的家中去世。弗雷德里克和伊莎贝尔安葬于康涅狄格州哈特福德斯普林格罗夫公墓的家族墓地。