Study of Cotopaxi Erupting

Frederic Edwin Church's oil sketch captures the Ecuadorian volcano Cotopaxi in violent eruption, a subject the artist studied during his 1853 travels through South America. The composition divides boldly between foreground sulfurous plains rendered in ochre and tan, and a sky split between clear blue and roiling clouds of ash and smoke in burnt sienna and brown. A conical formation of darker lava dominates the middle distance, with delicate wisps of steam rising from fissures. Church worked from direct observation and sketches to create a vision of geological power and natural drama that appealed to nineteenth-century audiences fascinated by exotic landscapes and the sublime forces shaping the earth.