A drawing of a montainus landscape during a thunderstoem. Two rainbows emerge from the clouds as a white vein of lightening strikes from the sky to ground. The mountains are blurry in the fog and the green grass transitions from a hunter green to a more vibrant green in the foreground. On the right side of the drawing, a lone small structure with a bulbous roof that conforms to a point, is placed atop the grass. A warm, yellow light illuminates the right portion of the sky and then fades into grey.

There is one other image of this object. This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions), and as such we offer a high-resolution image of it. See our image rights statement.

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Object Timeline

-0001	We photographed this object.
1917	We acquired this object.
2015	We photographed this object.
2018	We exhibited this object.
2024	You found it!

Drawing, Thunderstorm in the Alps

This is a Drawing. It was created by Frederic Edwin Church. It is dated 1868 and we acquired it in 1917. Its medium is brush and oil paint, graphite on paperboard. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

Water droplets behave much in the same way as Newton’s prism, splitting white light from the sun into its component colors to form the rainbow. It is easy to imagine that this spectacular natural phenomenon, captured in this oil study by Frederic Church, inspired scientists as much as it did artists.

This object was donated by Louis P. Church. It is credited Gift of Louis P. Church.

Poster, Hewlett-Packard Calculators / For Space Sciences

Poster, Hewlett-Packard Calculators / For Space Sciences
lithograph on paper.
Gift of Various Donors.
1981-29-491

Drawing, The Chariot of the Sun Fantasy
brush and oil on paper laminate.
Gift of Louis P. Church .
1917-4-1326

Poster, Aeron Chair
digital print and screenprint on paper.
Gift of Herman Miller.
2014-19-1

Our curators have highlighted 8 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:

Drawing, Landscape with Sunset
brush and oil paint, graphite on paperboard.
Gift of Louis P. Church.
1917-4-347-a

$Book, Opticks, or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. . . .$

Book, Opticks, or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflexions and...
letterpress and engraving on paper.
Gift of Burndy Library, Smithsonian Libraries, QC353 .N56 1704.
92.2016.35

Drawing, Newfoundland, Cat Head
brush and oil paint on cardboard.
Gift of Louis P. Church.
1917-4-831

Its dimensions are

29.4 × 44.5 cm (11 9/16 × 17 1/2 in.)

Cite this object as

Drawing, Thunderstorm in the Alps; Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826–1900); USA; brush and oil paint, graphite on paperboard; 29.4 × 44.5 cm (11 9/16 × 17 1/2 in.); Gift of Louis P. Church; 1917-4-509

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color.

Short URL http://cprhw.tt/o/2BgVH/
Accession Number 1917-4-509
Object ID 18198991