Detroit Institute of Arts to celebrate the bicentennial of Frederic Church, one of America's greatest painters
Frederic Edwin Church, South American Landscape, 1853–1854. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Gift of Louis P. Church, 1917-4-708. Photo: Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution.
DETROIT, MICH.—
The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) will present Guests of Honor: Frederic Church’s Cotopaxi, a special exhibition celebrating the 200th anniversary of the renowned American landscape painter’s birth. This intimate presentation highlights how Church used observation and imagination to turn scientific curiosity into awe-inspiring art. The show features the DIA’s breathtaking 1862 masterwork Cotopaxi, one of the museum’s most celebrated and beloved American paintings, complemented by three additional works by Church on loan, and a related landscape painting by Rémy Louis Mignot to illuminate Church’s creative process and vision.
On view in the DIA’s American Galleries, from March 27 through October 25, 2026, this special Guests of Honor exhibition—the tenth installment in a long-running series that brings a selection of extraordinary works from across the globe to Detroit—features three works on loan from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, in New York, as well as a DIA-owned landscape painting by Mignot who accompanied Church on his second trip to South America.
The DIA’s exhibition is one of dozens of exhibitions and events across the United States and Europe that are focusing attention on the great American painter and his lasting impact on American art. Information on other exhibitions, events and new publications celebrating Church and his achievement is available at: https://olana.org/fc200/.
“This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to see Frederic Church’s monumental Cotopaxi in dialogue with the studies that preceded it, revealing the artist’s remarkable dedication to capturing nature’s sublime power,” said Detroit Institute of Arts Director Salvador Salort-Pons. “As we mark the 200th anniversary of Church’s birth, we celebrate his enduring contribution to American art and his ability to inspire wonder in viewers across generations.”
Like many of his contemporaries, Frederic Church (1826–1900) was inspired by recent scientific discoveries in the earth sciences. In response, he created spectacular landscape paintings that captured the spirit, energy, and majesty of the natural world. Eager to experience the powerful forces of nature firsthand, he traveled to Ecuador twice—first in 1853 and again in 1857. On both trips, he explored many of the nation’s volcanoes, including Cotopaxi. While in Ecuador, he produced pencil drawings and oil studies that later served as the basis for finished paintings created after his return to the United States.
Between 1853 and the end of his life, Church completed around thirty major paintings featuring South American subjects, each marked by detailed representations of Andean flora, fauna, and geology. Art historians generally agree that The Heart of the Andes, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the DIA’s Cotopaxi are the greatest of these works.
Frederic Edwin Church, Cotopaxi at Night, Viewed from the Hacienda San Agustin, Ecuador, September 1853. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Gift of Louis P. Church, 1917-4-1332-a. Photo: Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution.
Unlike the painting at the Metropolitan, the DIA’s Cotopaxi features a dramatic volcanic eruption. Set above a steep gorge with a cascading waterfall, the volcano spews stones and ash, turning the sky a deathly red-orange. The painting demonstrates Church’s mastery of light and atmosphere, conveying the elemental forces of fire, water, and earth. The work—the first of his to depict a truly violent volcanic eruption—was acquired by the DIA in 1976.
On loan from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, are three works made during and immediately following Church’s 1853 and 1857 trips to Ecuador. Each work captures the spirit of Cotopaxi and ultimately laid the foundation for how he would depict the volcano in his 1862 masterpiece. One was made during the first trip, one after his return to his studio after that trip, and one made during his second trip when Cotopaxi was actively venting stones and ash. In the two earlier studies, Church emphasizes the majesty of the mountain’s almost perfectly conic form, treating Cotopaxi as what one of his friends described as a type of “Power in Repose.” The third, made during the second trip, shows Cotopaxi spewing stone ash and guided Church’s work in creating his 1862 masterpiece The DIA’s contribution to the celebration of Church’s work also includes Morning in the Andes (1863), by Louis Remy Mignot who accompanied Church on the 1857 expedition. Less interested in specific details than Church, Mignot used delicate gradations of pale colors to capture the effect of morning light.
Frederic Edwin Church, Cotopaxi Erupting, Viewed from Quito, Ecuador, June 1857. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Gift of Louis P. Church, 1917-4-773. Photo: Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution.
This focused installation was curated by Dr. Kenneth John Myers, Byron and Dorothy Gerson Curator of American Art and head of the Department of American Art at the DIA.
Dr. Myers said: “Together with Rembrandt Peale’s Court of Death (1820), James McNeill Whistler’s Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket (1875), and Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry Murals (1932-1933), Cotopaxi is one of the most important, famous, and beloved works of art in the DIA’s fabulous collection of historic American art. We are thrilled to join with colleagues across the nation and world to celebrate both Church and his Cotopaxi.”
Guests of Honor: Frederic Church’s Cotopaxi will be presented in the DIA’s American galleries, where it joins the museum’s outstanding collection of 19th-century American art, including works by Thomas Cole, Winslow Homer, and Mary Cassat, among many others.
More information about Guests Of Honor: Frederic Church’s Cotopaxi at https://dia.org/events/exhibitions/guests-honor-frederic-churchs-cotopaxi
