Frederic Edwin ChurchAmerican, 1826–1900Storm in the Mountains
Can I see it?
Yes, on view now
Where is “Storm in the Mountains” now? The Cleveland Museum of Art, 206 American Landscape, Cleveland. Yes, on view now. Checked September 29, 2026.
On public display.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
Dominating this composition is a lightning-blasted tree embodying nature's awe-inspiring power and endless cycle of life and death. A popular motif because of these associations, the blasted tree was favored by many landscape painters like Church, who prominently featured it here.
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Details
- Accession number
- 1969.52
In the catalog
Sources
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Image: The Cleveland Museum of Art — Museum open access
In the life of Frederic Edwin Church
The whole life1846
First sale, to the Wadsworth Atheneum
Church’s first recorded sale was a pastoral painting of Thomas Hooker’s journey of 1636, bought by the Wadsworth Atheneum for $130; the painter’s ancestor, the Puritan Richard Church, had accompanied Hooker. Other accounts have him selling a picture to the Atheneum after his 1848 exhibition.
1848
The youngest associate of the National Academy of Design
Church was elected the youngest Associate of the National Academy of Design, and a full member the following year. In May 1848 he was offered a solo exhibition at the Academy.
1848
A New York studio and his first pupil
Church opened a studio in New York and took his first pupil, William Stillman. As a rule he sketched outdoors from spring to autumn and finished and sold his pictures in winter.
