El Rio de Luz (The River of Light)
1877
Painter, American, 1826 - 1900
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Latin America, with its rich histories and cultures — as well as dense jungles, towering volcanoes, and mountain ranges — fascinated American artists in the mid-19th century. Frederic Edwin Church traveled in the tropics and used the sketches he made in different locations to create popular landscape paintings.
As the title suggests, this work is about both water coursing through a landscape and light moving through space. The trees crowding the scene draw our eye along the still, reflective surface of the river. The sun’s rays lead us from the water to the glowing air above, where they seem to join earth and heaven. In the distance, a tiny figure in a canoe is on the verge of vanishing into the mists.
West Building Main Floor, Gallery 67
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 138.1 x 213.7 cm (54 3/8 x 84 1/8 in.)
framed: 160.7 x 237.5 x 7.6 cm (63 1/4 x 93 1/2 x 3 in.) -
Accession
1965.14.1
More About this Artwork
Video: Guided Meditation: Warmth in Frederic Edwin Church’s “River of Light”
Immerse yourself in the lush, tropical landscape of Frederic Edwin Church’s El Rio de Luz through this 3-minute, guided meditation.
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
William Earl Dodge, Jr. [d. 1903], New York;[1] his wife, Mrs. William Earl Dodge, Jr. [d. 1909], New York; her grandson, William Earl Dodge IV [d. 1927], New York;[2] his wife, Ella Lynch Dodge [d. 1964], New York; her stepdaughter, Diana Dodge Ryan, Newport;[3] given in 1965 to the Preservation Society of Newport County, Rhode Island; purchased 9 December 1965 by NGA.
[1] William Earl Dodge, Jr., was the son of a prominent New York merchant. His brother, David Stuart Dodge, was a missionary and a founder of Syrian Protestant College in Beirut (present-day American University of Beirut), where he was the first professor of modern languages. D. S. Dodge accompanied Church on his travels in Syria and the Holy Land in 1868; see David C. Huntington, The Landscapes of Frederic Edwin Church: Vision of an American Era, New York, 1966: 93, and John Davis, "Frederic Church's 'Sacred Geography.'" Smithsonian Studies in American Art 1 (Spring 1987): 81. Although it is reasonable to assume that D. S. Dodge was instrumental in arranging the commission of Morning in the Tropics, there is no evidence documenting his role.
[2] William Earl Dodge IV was the son of William Earl Dodge III, who died in 1884.
[3] William Earl Dodge IV bequeathed the painting to his daughter, Diana Dodge (later Ryan), but gave his second wife, Ella Lynch Dodge, a life interest. Ryan (letter of 3 March 1966 in NGA curatorial files) saw the painting twice: in 1921, when it was hanging in the dining room of her father's yacht; and then next "in early 1965," a few months after her stepmother's death in October 1964.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1877
Century Association, New York, 1877, no. 5, as A Tropical Morning.
1878
Exposition Universelle Internationale, Palais du Champ de Mars, Paris, 1878, no. 20, as Le matin sous les tropiques.
Possibly The Union League Club, New York, 1878, no cat.
1880
Loan Collection of Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1880, no. 111, as The River of Light.
1900
Paintings by Frederic E. Church, N.A., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1900, no. 13, repro.
1966
Frederic Edwin Church, National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C.; Albany Institute of History and Art; M. Knoedler and Co., New York, 1966, no. 97 (shown only in Washington).
1968
The Hudson River School, Fine Arts Center, State University College, Geneseo, New York, 1968, repro. 61.
1969
In Memoriam, Ailsa Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1969, unnumbered checklist.
1971
The Beckoning Land, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 1971, no. 51, repro.
1989
Frederic Edwin Church, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1989-1990, no. 49, color repro.
2000
In Search of the Promised Land: Paintings by Frederic Edwin Church, Berry-Hill Galleries, New York; Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago; Portland Art Museum, Oregon; Portland Museum of Art, Maine, 2000-2001, pl. 66 (not shown in New York).
Bibliography
1878
"American Art in Paris." Art Journal 4 (May 1878): 160.
"Art at the Union League Club." New York Post (28 February 1878): 2.
1879
French, H.W. Art and Critics in Connecticut. Boston, 1879: 134.
1880
Brownwell, William C. "The Younger Painters of America." Scribner's Monthly 20 (May 1880): 323-324.
1889
Montgomery, Walter, ed. American Art and American Art Collections. 2 vols. Boston, 1889. Reprint, New York and London, 1978: 2:774.
1966
Frederic Edwin Church. Exh. cat. National Collection of Fine Arts (now National Museum of American Art), Washington, D.C., 1966: 18, 68, no. 97.
Huntington, David C. The Landscapes of Frederic Edwin Church: Vision of an American Era. New York, 1966: 49, 93, 103, 194, 105-106, 108-109, 126, 129, figs. 90, 91.
Stevens, Elisabeth. "An Observant Melodramatist." Art in America 40 (April 1966): 46.
1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 40, repro.
1971
Campbell, William P. "The American Heritage at the National Gallery of Art." The Connoisseur 178 (December 1971): 270.
1973
Lindquist-Cock, Elisabeth. "Frederic Church's Stereographic Vision." Art in America 61 (September-October 1973): 72, repro. 70.
Stebbins, Theodore E., Jr. "Church, Frederic Edwin." In The Britannica Encyclopedia of American Art. Chicago, 1973: 116.
1975
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 550, no. 831, color repro.
1976
Stebbins, Theodore E., Jr. The Hudson River School: 19th Century American Landscapes in the Wadsworth Atheneum. Hartford, 1976: 51.
1977
Brown, Milton W. American Art to 1900. New York, 1977: 339, repro. 340.
Lindquist-Cock, Elizabeth. The Influence of Photography on American Landscape Painting. New York, 1977: 119, pl. 35 (detail), 227.
1978
Stebbins, Theordore E., Jr. Close Observation: Selected Sketches by Frederic E. Church. Exh. cat. Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., 1978: 48.
1979
Wilmerding, John. "Luminism: The Poetry of Light." Portfolio 1 (June-July 1979): repro. 29.
1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 130, repro.
Wilmerding, John. American Light: The Luminist Movement, 1850-1875, Paintings, Drawings, Photographs. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 17, 36, 121, 174, 184, repro. 120.
Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 11, 15, 19, no. 31, color repro.
1981
Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: color repro. 102-3, 119 detail, 121-122.
1982
Mrozek, Donald J. "The American Idea of Recreation and the Changing Role of the National Parks." Conspectus of History 1 (1982): 20.
1983
Stebbins, Theodore E., Jr., Carol Troyen, and Trevor J. Fairbrother. A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting, 1760-1910. Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Grand Palais, Paris. Boston, 1983: 249.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 547, no. 822, color repro.
1987
Kelly, Franklin. "Frederic Church in the Tropics." Arts in Virginia 27 (1987): 32, 33, fig. 16.
1988
Kelly, Franklin. Frederic Edwin Church and the National Landscape. Washington, D.C., 1988: 126.
Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 114, no. 34, color repro.
1989
Kelly, Franklin, Stephen J. Gould, and James Anthony Ryan. Frederic Edwin Church. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1989: 12, 14, 67-68, 163-164, 170, 203, no. 49, color repro. 125.
Manthorne, Katherine Emma. Tropical Renaissance: North American Artists Exploring Latin America, 1839-1879. Washington and London, 1989: I, 60, repro. 61.
Miller, David C. Dark Eden: The Swamp in Nineteenth Century American Culture. Cambridge, 1989: 113-116, fig. 4.2; pl. 5, misdated 1876.
1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 142, repro.
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 236, repro.
1996
Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 63-68, color repro.
Davis, John. The Landscape of Belief: Encountering the Holy Land in Nineteenth Century American Art and Culture. Princeton, 1996: 197.
Kornhauser, Elizabeth Mankin._ American Paintings Before 1945 in the Wadsworth Atheneum_. London, 1996: no. 213, repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 306-307, no. 246, color repro.
Inscriptions
lower right: F. E. CHURCH / 1877
Wikidata ID
Q5352030