Icebergs near Cape St. John, Canada

Frederic Edwin Church's study sheet presents five careful observations of icebergs, rendered in white gouache and ink wash on brown paper. Each formation captures distinct sculptural qualities—the jagged peaks and hollowed cavities of glacial ice as it calves and drifts. Church traveled to Labrador in the summer of 1859, the same year he exhibited his monumental canvas *The Heart of the Andes* to acclaim. These sketches served as working material for his studio paintings, particularly *The Icebergs* (1861), which established ice as a subject of geological and aesthetic importance. Church's approach—direct observation translated into dramatic composition—defined nineteenth-century American landscape practice and influenced how artists engaged with polar and extreme environments.