This catalog accompanied the first major exhibition devoted to the work of Frederic Edwin Church in almost 25 years, marking the first time this great American artist’s most significant paintings appeared together. Church created some of the most powerful landscapes of the 19th century, technical and intellectual tours de force that commanded the attention of his contemporaries. The works represented here offer a look at Church as a public figure and include the artist’s most important finished paintings: the ones he exhibited publicly or sold to important patrons, and the ones he would have considered his most significant. The catalog assesses Church’s achievements and his reputation in his own day as one of the greatest painters to appear in the young nation.