The Heart of the Andes
Frederic Edwin Church, 1859
He charged a quarter and handed out opera glasses. The Andes hung in New York, and people lined up like it was a play. A cross in the hills. A whole continent in one room.
About this work
The Heart of the Andes is Frederic Edwin Church's idealised view of the South American Andes, painted in 1859 after two journeys to Ecuador and Colombia in 1853 and 1857. Church, inspired by the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, combined several real landscapes, from the snow-capped Chimborazo to a plain and a jungle, into one composition crowded with plants, animals and signs of settlement, including people at a cross in the left foreground. More than five feet high and almost ten feet wide, the painting was a sensation when it was exhibited in New York in 1859, shown on its own with special lighting and a floor-standing frame; visitors paid 25 cents and queued to see it, and many studied its detail closely. Its sale to William Tilden Blodgett set a price record for a living American artist, and the show established Church as the leading landscape painter in the United States. It has been in The Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1909 and measures 168 × 302.9 cm (66⅛ × 120³⁄₁₆ in).
Sources: Wikipedia · The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Print facts
- Native resolution
- 6,400 × 3,503 px
- Sharp at 150 ppi up to
- 42 × 23 in
- Sizes
- Small (20 × 11 in) · $100 · 318 ppi
Medium (24 × 13 in) · $150 · 267 ppi
Large (36 × 20 in) · $300 · 175 ppi - Price includes
- Frame and US shipping · 14–21 days · 30-day returns
FAQ
Where can I buy a framed print of The Heart of the Andes?
Here. The Heart of the Andes is available as a framed print in three sizes: Small (20 × 11 in) for $100, Medium (24 × 13 in) for $150 and Large (36 × 20 in) for $300. Prices include the frame and US shipping; delivery takes 14–21 days, with 30-day returns.
What size works best for The Heart of the Andes?
The file is 6,400 × 3,503 px, so every size is sharp: even Large (36 × 20 in) prints at 175 ppi. Choose Large (36 × 20 in) for a large wall; Small (20 × 11 in) suits a narrower space.
Is it legal to print The Heart of the Andes?
Yes. The Heart of the Andes is in the public domain: its copyright, if it ever had one, expired long ago. In the United States a faithful photograph of a public-domain painting does not create a new copyright (Bridgeman v. Corel, 1999), so the image can be printed and sold freely.
