Covered Wagon and Figure Sketches

These preliminary sketches by landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church record observations from his travels in Switzerland. The detailed study of a covered wagon—rendered with careful attention to mechanical construction and shadow—appears alongside quick figure studies of seated and reclining forms. Church's practice of compiling such visual notes directly from observation fed his grand landscape compositions. The economical pencil technique demonstrates the working method of nineteenth-century artists who built extensive reference libraries before executing their major studio works.