The Coast at Mt. Desert Island, Maine

Frederic Edwin Church, American, 1826–1900 · 1850–1851

Landscape sketch showing a view of the rugged coastline of Maine at Mt. Desert Island, likely near Schooner Head. The immediate foreground is rendered only minimally in graphite and includes one large rock and a portion of a rockface. Rendered in great detail in oil paint, the middle distance is composed of large, rough boulders and rocky outrcoppings along the shoreline, characterized by their planar, cubic forms and dark fissures. The rock has a distinctly lateritious (brick-colored) tint, similar to the ground that comprises the lower half of the composition. The shoreline itself curves leftward into the background, where a short, round hill defines the horizon. Above, one puffy cloud hangs at upper right in the sky, which has a warm tone due to the ground color.