Delineating Land

Abstract

This chapter reconsiders the work of renowned US landscape artist Frederic Church within the rubric of expeditionary aesthetics. His study of earth and sky occupied his entire life, taking form not only on paper and canvas but also in actual land, the site of Olana, a 250-acre hillside property that became a decades-long creative project. Church’s monumental paintings as well as Olana stand out not merely as an “explorative,” scientific interest but also an artistic practice deeply engaged with the tools of nineteenth-century investigations of the natural world. Church’s efforts underscore the challenges, for artists and cartographers alike, of delineating land in pursuit of meaning.