Reynolda House Museum of American Art, in Winston-Salem, N.C., will host The Finest Eye: A Symposium on Frederic Church, featuring three of the country’s top authorities on America’s most popular artist of the mid-19th century. The symposium, scheduled for Saturday, April 21 from 1 to 5 p.m., is in conjunction with the museum’s presentation of "Frederic Church: A Painter’s Pilgrimage," which is on view now through May 13, 2018. The exhibition is the first to explore Church’s paintings inspired by his travels to the Middle East and the Mediterranean and includes more than 50 paintings, oil studies, and drawings from the late 1860s through the early 1880s. Organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts, the exhibition travels next to the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, Conn., June 2- August 26.

Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900) took landscape painting to new heights of grandeur and was best known for his large, visually stunning paintings of American scenes as well as views of South America, the North Atlantic, and the Caribbean. But from 1867 until the end of his life, many of Church’s most important paintings represented ancient cities or buildings that he saw during his 1867–69 trip to the Middle East, Rome, and Athens. While Church’s paintings of the New World focused on the natural world, his works from the Old World explored human history. The exhibition brings together nearly all of Church’s most important paintings of the Mediterranean region and Holy Land in order to explore this major shift in his artistic practice.

“'Frederic Church: A Painter’s Pilgrimage' provides a remarkable opportunity to see the work of one of the most honored Hudson River School artists whose painting 'The Andes of Ecuador' is one of the most important works in the Reynolda House collection,” says Allison Perkins, director of Reynolda House Museum of American Art. “All of the work in the exhibition was created after Church observed firsthand some of antiquity’s most extraordinary cities, buildings, temples, and ruins. The exhibition juxtaposes pencil drawings and oil studies that Church completed during his trip with paintings he completed back in his studio.”

Symposium: 

The featured speakers will place Church’s paintings and travels within a broad interdisciplinary context, drawing upon history, science, religious studies, and literature. Among the distinguished participants is the curator of the exhibition, Dr. Kenneth Myers, curator of American art at Detroit Institute of Arts. A cultural historian specializing in American landscape painting and the history of arts patronage, Myers has written extensively on Frederic Church and Church’s teacher Thomas Cole. He will provide insight into Church’s life and career with particular focus on the artist’s understanding of the relationship between religious truth and scientific truth.

Dr. Jennifer Raab, author and professor at Yale University, will address Church's travels through the Middle East as well as the Persian-styled home, Olana, which Church built in New York upon his return. Raab’s books on the artist include “Frederic Church: The Art and Science of Detail,” Yale University Press, 2015.

Dr. Timothy Barringer, curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s upcoming "Thomas Cole’s Journey: Atlantic Crossings," will complete the panel of speakers. His talk will examine the relationship between Frederic Church’s major works and the art criticism of John Ruskin. Barringer is Paul Mellon Professor of British Art and chair of the history of art department at Yale University.

A ticket to the symposium includes admission to the museum, exhibition, and reception. Tickets are $30 for non-members, $15 for members and students. For tickets and a complete calendar of upcoming events, including three additional talks on Frederic Church, please visit reynoldahouse.org/church.