Aurora+Borealis

Date: 1865
 * [[image:http://americanart.si.edu/images/1911/1911.4.1_1c.jpg width="290" height="193" link="@http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=4806"]] || Title: **Aurora Borealis**

Artist: **Frederic Edwin Church** Born: Hartford, Connecticut 1826 Died: New York, New York 1900

Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 56 x 83 1/2 in. (142.3 x 212.2 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Eleanor Blodgett

Accession: 1911.4.1 ||

The ship and sled team in this image belonged to Frederic Church's friend, polar explorer Dr. Isaac Hayes. Hayes had led an Arctic expedition in 1860, and gave his sketches from the trip to the artist as inspiration for this painting. Hayes returned from his voyage to find the country in the thick of the Civil War, and in a rousing speech vowed that "God willing, I trust yet to carry the flag of the great Republic, with not a single star erased from its glorious Union, to the extreme northern limits of the earth." Viewers understood Church's painting of the Aurora Borealis (also known as the northern lights) as a portent of disaster, a divine omen relating to the conflict. Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2009
 * Exhibition Label: **


 * Suggested Questions: **
 * Where is this scene set? How can you tell?
 * What is going on here?
 * Where are there symbols of hope for the icebound ship?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Aurora Borealis Article from 1881 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Ask Joan of Art <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;">Artist Biography <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;">High Resolution Image <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;">Young America (Treasures Book) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;">SAAM Collection Page
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