El Rio de Luz (The River of Light)
1877 · Oil on canvas · National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
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This print
About this work
- Artist
- Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900)
- Year
- 1877
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 138.1 × 213.7 cm
- Collection
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
- Movement
- Hudson River School
A still river winds through dense tropical forest towards a dawn haze that dissolves earth into sky; birds fly low over the water, a tiny figure in a canoe is about to vanish into the mist, and a hut shows on the right bank. Church painted it in 1877 as his last large South American landscape, built like The Heart of the Andes from sketches made twenty years earlier but altogether more intimate: a single place and climate seen from the water's edge rather than a continent surveyed from a height. He exhibited it in 1877 as A Tropical Morning and sent it to the Paris Exposition of 1878. By then his reputation was waning and critics called such pictures theatrical; later scholars have seen in it a vision of a new Eden. It came to the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 1965.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A still river through dense forest dissolving into dawn haze, with a canoe about to vanish, for a bedroom, bathroom or quiet living room at 36×24 in black or natural oak. Sage, cream or soft grey; the most intimate Church, and it calms a room.
- Style
- Hudson River School painting
- Era
- 19th century (1877)
- Orientation
- Landscape
- Mood
- calm
- Rooms
- living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. Prints at 18×12, 24×16, 36×24 in — 18×12 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 24×16 above a console or sideboard; 36×24 as the statement piece above a sofa or headboard.
Framing. Printed edge to edge: a slim black or natural oak frame right to the image, or let the canvas wrap do the framing.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is El Rio de Luz (The River of Light) in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was El Rio de Luz (The River of Light) painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
