Foundering Icebergs near Battle Harbour, Canada

Frederic Edwin Church's sketches document icebergs observed during his 1859 expedition to Newfoundland. The sheet combines multiple vantage points and compositional studies—towering bergs rendered in ink line, glacial formations captured from different angles, and two finished passages in white gouache highlighting the luminous quality of ice against dark water. Church's systematic approach combines the naturalist's precise observation with the landscape painter's concern for atmospheric effect. These working studies reveal how nineteenth-century artists gathered material for monumental studio compositions, translating fieldwork into the grand-scale paintings that defined American Romantic landscape art.