Twilight in the Wilderness
Frederic Edwin Church, 1860
1860. The wilderness goes red. Sunset like a nation holding its breath. War is a year away. The sky already knows.
About this work
Twilight in the Wilderness, painted in 1860, shows the woodlands of the northeastern United States under a setting sun that sets dramatic altocumulus clouds ablaze in purple, orange and yellow. There is no sign of people; the only animal is a small bird perched at the left. Like many of Frederic Edwin Church's pictures it is probably a composite of field sketches, especially from Maine, where he travelled often in the 1850s, to Mount Desert Island and Mount Katahdin. The sky shows the influence of J. M. W. Turner, and its smooth, camera-like finish leaves little trace of the painter's hand. It was painted at a time of growing American interest in unspoiled nature; Thoreau's Walden had appeared in 1854. The Church scholar John K. Howat called it "one of his finest ever" and the most famous nineteenth-century image of untouched North American woodland. The painting passed through the de Forest family before the Cleveland Museum of Art bought it in 1965.
Sources: Wikipedia · Cleveland Museum of Art
Print facts
- Native resolution
- 5,000 × 3,115 px
- Sharp at 150 ppi up to
- 33 × 20 in
- Sizes
- Small (20 × 12 in) · $100 · 250 ppi
Medium (24 × 15 in) · $150 · 208 ppi
Large (36 × 22 in) · $300 · 139 ppi - Price includes
- Frame and US shipping · 14–21 days · 30-day returns
FAQ
Where can I buy a framed print of Twilight in the Wilderness?
Here. Twilight in the Wilderness is available as a framed print in three sizes: Small (20 × 12 in) for $100, Medium (24 × 15 in) for $150 and Large (36 × 22 in) for $300. Prices include the frame and US shipping; delivery takes 14–21 days, with 30-day returns.
What size works best for Twilight in the Wilderness?
The file is 5,000 × 3,115 px. Medium (24 × 15 in) is the largest size that prints at 150 ppi or more (208 ppi), the sharpest choice for close viewing; Large (36 × 22 in) prints at 139 ppi, fine from a few feet away but softer up close.
Is it legal to print Twilight in the Wilderness?
Yes. Twilight in the Wilderness 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.
