  Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), Fog off Mount Desert, 1850, oil on academy board, John Wilmerding Collection In the summer of 1850 Church traveled to Mount Desert,
the first of many visits he would make to Maine over the course of his
life. As he described in a letter: "It was a stirring sight to
see the immense rollers come toppling in, changing their forms and gathering
in bulk, then dashing into sparkling foam....We tried painting them,
and drawing and taking notes of them, but cannot suppress a doubt that
we shall neither be able to give the actual motion nor roar to any we
may place upon canvas." Despite his words, Church must have felt
he succeeded, for in 1851 he sent this work to a public exhibition in
New York.
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