This exhibition celebrated one of the greatest American painters of the 19th century, Frederic Edwin Church. Renowned for his spectacular landscapes, which combine dramatic compositions with beautifully observed light effects, he travelled to locations as distant as the Arctic Circle, South America and Europe.

Bringing together 25 of Church’s remarkably fresh and spontaneous oil sketches, borrowed from collections in the United States, these were juxtaposed with his magnificent and imposing painting, Niagra Falls from the American Side. Donated to the Scottish National Gallery in 1887 by an expatriate Scot, it is the only painting by Church in a UK public collection.

The exhibition was organised by the National Gallery, London, in partnership with and through major support from the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Image: Frederic Edwin Church, Sunrise (detail), 1862