Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Frederic Edwin Church was a landscape painter and one of the main figures in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters (Frederic 1). Church's travels to South America led to his fascination with the Andes, where Prussian explorer Alexander von Humboldt challenged the artist to "portray the physiognomy of the Andes" (Frederic 1). In "Rainy Season in the Tropics" (1866), Church created an oil on canvas that portrays two different locations. Most of the composition is taken up by Church's depiction of the Ecuadorian Andes, with a small portion on the right devoted to a tropical forest in Jamaica (Rainy 1).
The landscapes portrayed in the two locations are connected by a double rainbow that frames the landscapes in a half circle. Down the middle of the painting, Church divides the work in two with a rolling river. His use of dark colors on both sides of the river creates a stunning value contrast in the middle front of the work due to the bright white river water and sunshine on the Andes. One of the reasons this work was so appealing to me is because of my love of double rainbows. However, it was also intriguing to me after reading a bit about the artist's life before choosing a work. Many critics contend there is meaning behind the two landscapes connected by the double rainbow in "Rainy Season in the Tropics." Coming just on the heels of the end of the Civil War, some critics contend that "the rainbow connects the two landscapes; thereby symbolizing hope for the renewal and reunification of a divided America" (Rainy 1). Other critics maintain the work is a tribute to the painter's two children who both died in 1865.
Despite the above contentions, others maintain Church sketched plans for a painting of a South American landscape well before he knew how the war would unfold or that his children would die. Large in size (56 ¼ x 84 ¼ in.) and majestic i...