Puracé from Popayán, Colombia and Landscape Study, Ecuador

Frederic Edwin Church's field sketches document his South American expedition, capturing volcanic peaks and mountain ranges with rapid pen strokes. The upper study shows Puracé's distinctive cone rising above the landscape, while the lower composition studies the play of light across distant ridges, numbered for reference. These working drawings—raw notation rather than finished works—reveal Church's method: on-site observation translated into precise linear notation. Such sketches formed the foundation for the monumental studio paintings that established Church as America's preeminent landscape artist of the mid-nineteenth century, transforming topographical study into romantic vision.