Heart of the Andes

Before following the mountain skyline, find the small cross beside the path in the lower left. The nearby figures are tiny among the trees. A waterfall pulls your eye toward the middle, and the snowy summit rises much farther away. Frederic Edwin Church painted the tiny cross and distant snow in the same enormous landscape. Church built Heart of the Andes in 1859 from sketches made during his travels in Ecuador in 1853 and 1857. Inspired by the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt’s writing, he brought tropical growth, temperate country and high-mountain snow into a single composition. The view gathers observations from different places. Its first exhibition encouraged visitors to spend time searching it. A large, window-like frame, controlled light and opera glasses helped make the painted landscape feel like a view opening beyond the room. The frame now around the canvas was designed by Church for another painting. You can still try the change of scale with your eyes. Move from a foreground leaf or branch to the distant white mountain, then find the cross again among the trees.