Style Imitating Art: Aurora Borealis by Frederic Edwin Church

“She looked directly up into the Northern Lights and she wondered if those cold-burning specters might not draw her breath, her very soul, out of her chest and into the stars.”

Eowyn Ivey

It is time for another art lesson and an outfit that was accidentally inspired by a painting. But first, a bit about this creative little style series…

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Daenel of Living Outside the Stacks, Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, and Terri of Meadow Tree Style. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as curator, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the curator by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the curator will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join! You are invited to share your images on Instagram or other social media platforms! Just be sure to tag Salazar, Terri, and Daenel or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

The Inspiration Artwork

The inspiration artwork was curated by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey. You can read why she has chosen this specific piece as her inspiration artwork here.

Aurora Borealis by Frederic Edwin Church (Oil on Canvas, 1865)

About the Artist: Frederic Edwin Church

Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter from Hartford, Connecticut. Church was a central figure in the Hudson River School, a mid-19th century art movement in America that was established by a group of landscape painters who were heavily influenced by Romanticism. Their paintings typically included the Hudson River Valley and its surrounding areas including the Catskills, the Adirondacks, and the White Mountains. A second generation of the Hudson River School expanded their landscape paintings to include depictions of other locations such as New England, the Maritimes, the American West, and parts of South America.

Church was best known for his large landscape paintings which often depicted mountains, waterfalls, and sunsets. He emphasized realism in the details and had an affinity for dramatic light and panoramic views. In the prime of his artistic career, Church was one of the most famous painters in the United States. He sometimes debuted his works in single-painting exhibitions in New York City to very enthusiastic audiences who paid generous money for a viewing.

Church was born to Eliza and Joseph Church in Hartford, Connecticut, on May 4, 1826. Church’s father was a successful silversmith and jeweler as well as a director at several financial firms. His family’s wealth allowed him to pursue art from a very young age. At the age of 18, Church began studying art with the founder of the Hudson River School, Thomas Cole, one of the major American painters from this time period.

In 1846, at the youthful age of of 20, Church sold his first painting which was a pastoral depicting the 1636 journey of Thomas Hooker and Richard Church (Frederic’s direct ancestor and Puritan pioneer who made the trek through the New England wilderness from Massachusetts to what would become Hartford, Connecticut). The sale price of $130 is equivalent to approximately $4,500 in today’s currency.

The idealized nature scenes of the Romantic period were a tradition carried on in the works of Church. He glorified and celebrated an uninterrupted nature which was highlighted by painstaking details in his painting. He usually hid his brushstrokes so the surface of the painting would appear smooth and evidence of the painter’s personality would not be evident.

Despite his incredibly successful career as a painter, Church and his wife Isabel sadly lost their two young children to diphtheria a week apart in March of 1865. To ease their grief, Church and wife departed for a Jamaican sojourn of several months’ duration. At this time, Church embarked on the most intense sketching campaign of his professional life, completing some of his most vivid and haunting oil studies focused on botanical growth and tropical light. In 1867, Church and his wife had another child and departed with their newly revived family on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

By the time of Church’s death in 1900, he had been nearly forgotten after gradual and enduring neglect by his patrons as well as the public. His reputation as an artist was slowly recovered in the 1960s after the Metropolitan offered the first retrospective of his work. Once his legacy had been rekindled, American museums began acquiring his works in abundance. In 1979, his painting The Icebergs sold for $2.5 million ($9 million in today’s value), the third highest price fetched at auction for any work of art up until that point.

About the Art: Aurora Borealis (1865)

Church’s Aurora Borealis is an oil on canvas painting depicting the 1860 Arctic expedition of Isaac Israel Hayes. The painting is very large and imposing, measuring 142.3 x 212.2 centimeters (56.0 x 83.5 inches) and is currently housed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The painting is based on two separate sketches of the Aurora Borealis and a written description by Hayes of one particular display of the northern lights on a January evening when the aurora appeared over a mountain peak. The imagery in the painting shows Hayes’ ship, the SS United States, lying frozen and still in a pack of ice at the base of a looming cliff as the northern lights burst open in a cascade of eerie illumination. Using tiny hints of pigment through thin applications, Church ensured that the viewer did not see brushstrokes to create a more realistic image of this dramatic Arctic scene. He used shades of ochre, brown, and gray leading into hues of greens and blues.

Because the “Aurora Borealis” was unveiled in 1865, the year the American Civil War concluded, it is sometimes viewed as a restrained tribute to the end of the war as well as a variable example of how science and current events inspired the late Romantic artists.

Resources:

• Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900)
• Wikipedia: Frederic Edwin Church
• Wikipedia: Hudson River School
• Wikipedia: Thomas Cole
• Wikipedia: Aurora Borealis (painting)
• Aurora Borealis
• Aurora Painting Pays Tribute to Civil War’s End
• Wikipedia: Isaac Israel Hayes
• “Aurora Borealis” by Frederic Edwin Church

My Outfit Inspired by Frederic Edwin Church’s Aurora Borealis

I know this outfit is much tamer than my last Style Imitating Art outfit. And there is a reason for it. It really happened quite by accident. We had a rather mild day here last week and I have been dying to style this new tie dye sweater that I bought during my Torrid shopping spree with my sister back in February. The chambray trousers were also picked up during that same trip. I was planning to have Archie take some outfit photos for me on this day just to share a simple outfit combination that works for every day wear during the cooler months of early spring.

After I had gotten dressed and started doing some work on my laptop, I glanced at my desktop wallpaper which is the image of Church’s Aurora Borealis and realized that the tie dye in my sweater resembled the burst of northern lights in the dark arctic sky. I grabbed a bright red cross body bag to highlight the little bursts of red and orange in the light display and we headed off to one of our favorite photo spots. This little quarry area is located just a few blocks from our house on one outside corner of our local park. There are always all sorts of hills and peaks of gravel and other earthy materials so I knew it would create a wonderful backdrop to illustrate the inspiration drawn from the painting.

While the background for my photos was completely inspired by the art work, my outfit was not really inspired at all. It happened entirely by accident in a most serendipitous way. And when serendipity happens, you really just sort of have to roll with it!

To see more outfits inspired by Frederic Edwin Church’s Aurora Borealis, please visit Salazar’s post for the complete roundup of submissions. You can also read the details of Salazar’s own inspired outfit here, Daenel’s here, and Terri’s here. Have you joined the Style Imitating Art challenges yet? Be sure to check for the next prompt on Monday, April 26, 2021.

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

Linking up with these Fabulous Link Parties.

Outfit Details: Sweater and Pants-Torrid / Shoes-JustFab / Bag-Target / Necklace-c/o Happiness Boutique / Earrings-c/o Anjolee / Denim Jacket-Charlotte Russe