Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, 1870. Frederic Edwin Church. Oil on canvas. Gift of the Enid and Crosby Kemper Foundation.
Frederic Edwin Church's monumental Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives shows the Holy City embedded in a panoramic landscape under an expansive, cloud-filled sky. The Dome of the Rock sits near the center of the composition, while travelers in the foreground invite actual viewers of the painting to wonder at the scene. To assist original viewers of the painting in locating Jerusalem's sacred sites in the composition, the painter published a related geographical key.
The only pupil of Thomas Cole, Church raised American landscape painting to new heights of grandeur. Spectators flocked to Jerusalem's debut in New York in 1871, often using opera glasses to see its astonishing details more clearly. Church, who also designed the painting's frame, identified Jerusalem as his best work.
