Cuckhold Head from Signal Hill, St. John's, Canada

Frederic Edwin Church's sketch of Cuckhold Head, a rocky promontory near St. John's, Newfoundland, captures the dramatic geological formation with economical pen lines. Church, a leading Hudson River School painter, used such field studies to develop compositions for larger works. The drawing demonstrates the artist's acute observation of natural forms and his technique of rapid notation—essential tools for landscape artists working en plein air. This sheet reveals the working methods behind Church's monumental painted visions of the American and North American wilderness.