A biography of Frederic Church, the great 19th-century American artist whose stunning paintings of remote lands and seas thrilled American audiences and put the young republic on the map of world culture—published on Church’s bicentennial.
Superb ... Frederic Church is today half-forgotten. Has Ms. Johnson retrieved him for us as a man worthy of interest? It can surely be argued that she has. A lively, fluent writer, she has given us not a piece of art history or criticism but rather the biography of an enormously gifted man, whose enthusiasms and acquaintances intersected with those of many other fascinating people in New York City and beyond. More than anything, Glorious Country is an absorbing contribution to the life story of a metropolis.
A fresh look ... Just in time for Church’s centennial (he was born into a prosperous Connecticut family in 1826), this biography is also perfectly timed with the nation’s semiquincentennial ... Depicts Church as a sort of Indiana Jones with a painting kit, and she recreates his terrifying treks on high mountain trails in captivating detail.
