FREDERICK STUART CHURCH
1842 -1924
Frederick Church was a rare combination of a successful published illustrator, a fine artist, and an author. Church was born in Michigan and began to move toward an art career there while still a very young man. He moved to Chicago but when the Civil War broke out joined the Union Army.
After the war he moved to New York and studied life drawing at the Art Students League, the National Academy of Design, and studied etching with Pennell, a leading New York printmaker. Church’s skills were admired and he was elected to the New York Etching Club in 1879.
He was extremely interested in animals and drew from life in places as varied as the zoo in Central Park and at Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus when it came to the City. His drawings, etchings and watercolors of animals were lifelike as well as accurate due to his anatomical studies. The animals he drew were often placed in human situations, giving them an anthropomorphic aspect. This point of view was especially apt for the many childrens’ stories he illustrated and wrote. One of his own stories was The White Tiger published in 1855. Church illustrated over a thousand books and magazines during his career.
“The Song”
Etching
Published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1892
Image size 10 ½” x 5 ¾”
Archivally Framed 18” x 22”
$370.00