Tungurahua at Morning, near Riobamba, Ecuador

Frederic Edwin Church's sketch captures the volcanic peak of Tungurahua in Ecuador's highlands during his South American travels. The rapid pen lines define the mountain's conical form and surrounding terrain with economical precision, typical of Church's field studies. These working drawings informed his large studio paintings and reflect the 19th-century landscape tradition of direct observation from nature. Church's expeditions to Central and South America produced thousands of such studies, which he synthesized into monumental canvases exhibited internationally. This drawing demonstrates how artists translated geographic exploration into Romantic landscape compositions.