The Art of the Order of Nature: Frederic Edwin Church and Humboldt's Earthly Model 

Learn more about what inspired Frederic Church’s “Great Picture”. During this presentation, senior research scholar at The Metropolitan Museum of Art Kevin Avery explores the context and legacy of Church’s "Heart of the Andes." By tracing Church’s travels south, Dr. Avery highlights the influence Alexander von Humboldt made on this great work. Tune in and gain a deeper understanding of how vital the Prussian naturalist’s scientific treatises were to the development of Church’s popular painting. This webinar is presented in conjunction with "SPECTACLE: Frederic Church and the Business of Art."
KEVIN J. AVERY is a senior research scholar at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he was an assistant and as associate curator in the American Wing from 1988 to 2008. Dr. Avery received his B.A. in art history from Fordham University and his M.A. and PhD. degrees from Columbia University, where he wrote his dissertation on the panorama and its manifestations in American landscape painting. Among the exhibitions he has organized and the catalogues he has authored or co-authored are Church’s Great Picture, "The Heart of the Andes" (1993); "American Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Volume 1" (2002); "Hudson River School Visions: the Landscapes of Sanford R. Gifford"; and "Treasures from Olana: Landscapes by Frederic Edwin Church."