Camel Studies, Against Evening Sky, Palestine

Frederic Edwin Church's sketch page demonstrates the working method of a major nineteenth-century landscape painter. These rapid pen studies—camels in profile, three-quarter view, and repose; human figures; compositional notes—record observations made during Church's travels in the Middle East. The notational style and varied scales show an artist mining visual material for potential use in large-scale studio paintings. Church's commitment to direct study from nature, combined with his ambitions for monumental historical landscapes, established him as a leading figure in American art during the antebellum and postwar periods.