Public data from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Learn more
About the Artwork
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.
Inscriptions
Signed in center on tree: "F. CHURCH. 1847"
Provenance
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, VT); Adams Davidson and Company, Washington, DC, 1967; Hirschl and Adler, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1969. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 27-February 22, 1970). Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826–1900)
- Date
- 1847
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 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.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- American Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Gift of various donors by exchange and Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Accession no.
- 1969.52
More by Frederic Edwin Church in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009295
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