''Aurora Borealis'' is an 1865 painting by

Frederic Edwin Church Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for painting large landscapes, ...

of the

aurora borealis An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of br ...

and the Arctic expedition of

Isaac Israel Hayes Isaac Israel Hayes (March 5, 1832 – December 17, 1881) was an American Arctic explorer, physician, and politician, who was appointed as the commanding officer at Satterlee General Hospital during the American Civil War, and was then elected, ...

. The painting measures and is now owned by the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

Background

''Aurora Borealis'' is based on two separate sketches. The first incident was an aurora witnessed by Church's pupil, the

Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

explorer Isaac I. Hayes. Hayes provided a sketch and description of the aurora borealis display he witnessed one January evening. Coinciding with Hayes' furthest northern movement into what he named Cape Leiber, the aurora borealis appeared over the peak. Describing the event, Hayes wrote:

The light grew by degrees more and more intense, and from irregular bursts it settled into an almost steady sheet of brightness... The exhibition, at first tame and quiet, became in the end startling in its brilliancy. The broad dome above me is all ablaze... The colour of the light was chiefly red, but this was not constant, and every hue mingled in the fierce display. Blue and yellow streamers were playing in the lurid fire; and, sometimes starting side by side from the wide expanse of the illuminated arch, they melt into each other, and throw a ghostly glare of green into the face and over the landscape. Again this green overrides the red; blue and orange clasp each other in their rapid flight; violet darts tear through a broad flush of yellow, and countless tongues of white flame, formed of these uniting streams, rush aloft and lick the skies.

Description and influences

The iconography of the painting suggested personal and nationalistic references. The peak in the painting had been named after Church during Hayes's expedition. ''Aurora Borealis'' incorporated details of Hayes' ship, drawn from a sketch he brought back upon returning from his expedition. Contrasted with Church's earlier painting of the north, ''

The Icebergs ''The Icebergs'' is an 1861 oil painting by the American landscape artist Frederic Edwin Church. It was inspired by his 1859 voyage to the North Atlantic around Newfoundland and Labrador. Considered one of Church's "Great Pictures"—measuring ...

'' (1861), the intact ship highlights Hayes' achievement in navigating this space, as well as the state of the nation in navigating the contentious historical moment. Presenting the ship's safe passage through the dark Arctic environment, Church suggested optimism for the future; a tiny light shines out from the ship's window. Charles Millard describes Church's paintings as "large in scale and size, sharply horizontal in format" and "dramatic in subject, but yielding in execution, and tend ngto exploit both value contrast and continuous tonal transition." Church's works, including ''Aurora Borealis,'' were completed using small touches of pigment built together through thin applications, leaving the viewer unaware of fracture between strokes. These works are also built around the tones of "ochre, brown, gray going to blue or green, and green" at the expense of the full value of color.

Exhibition

Completed in New York that winter, ''Aurora Borealis'' was exhibited publicly in London in 1865 as a triumvirate with two paintings by Church of Ecuadoran volcanoes: ''Cotopaxi'' (his 1862 painting of an eruption) and ''Chimborazo'' (his 1864 reprise of the dormant mountain that had been the subject of his 1858 masterwork ''Heart of the Andes'').

Reception and legacy

Frederic Edwin Church - Rainy Season in the Tropics - Google Art Project

Created at the end of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, ''Aurora Borealis'' (1865) was believed to depict the portent of a simultaneously triumphant and desolate

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

victory, its meaning amplified in relation to later works, including ''The After Glow'' (1867) and other works. ''Aurora Borealis'' (1865) was associated with ''Rainy Season in the Tropics'' (1866) for two reasons. First, the two paintings marked the completion of the arctic-tropical sequence created with ''

The Heart of the Andes ''The Heart of the Andes'' is a large oil-on-canvas landscape painting by the American artist Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900). At more than five feet (1.7 metres) high and almost ten feet (3 metres) wide, it depicts an idealized landscape in ...

'' (1859) and ''The North'', also known as ''

'' (1861). These pairings drew together popular attention on exploration of the arctic North and the tropical South. The second association between ''Aurora Borealis'' and ''Rainy Season in the Tropics'' was established through their compositions and "in their luminosity", where each suggested a "renewed optimism in natural and historic events".

Notes

External links

The Smithsonian American Art Museum
page offers a zoomable view of the painting and photographs of the installation.
Research Notes
Smithsonian American Art Museum, December 2011. {{DEFAULTSORT:Aurora Borealis 1865 paintings Maritime paintings Paintings by Frederic Edwin Church Paintings in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum