During Church’s lifetime, the United States became the largest importer of coffee in the world, sourcing most of their product from Brazil. During this virtual webinar, Caroline Gillaspie will explore Brazil’s impressive agricultural exhibit at the 1876 U.S. Centennial exhibition alongside other artworks depicting coffee drinking in the United States as they reflected the developing taste for the beverage in the 19th century.

The Heart of the Andes by Frederic Church is an exquisite representation of the biological richness of these breathtaking landscapes, inviting curious eyes to explore every inch of this fabulous painting. During this virtual webinar, Dr. Mauricio Diazgranados will guide viewers through a journey traversing Church’s painting, sharing his photographs, adventures, and knowledge with over 30 years’ experience hiking and exploring the flora of these mountains.

During this virtual webinar, learn more about Charles Ethan Porter’s accomplished still life and landscape paintings that were collected by prominent figures like Church and Mark Twain. Curator Erin Monroe will examine the challenges Porter faced navigating racial inequality and prejudices as a Black artist working in the post-Civil War era.

Presented in conjunction with SPECTACLE: Frederic Church and the Business of Art, this webinar focuses on what inspired Frederic Church’s “Great Picture.” Senior research scholar at The Metropolitan Museum of Art Kevin Avery explores the context and legacy of Church’s The Heart of the Andes and highlights the influence Alexander von Humboldt made on this great work.

Frederic Church based his large-scale painting The Heart of the Andes (1859) on his two trips to South America in 1853 and 1857. This webinar will explore how Church navigated the business side of his craft and ultimately ensured the painting’s place in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In this talk, Eleanor Harvey takes us on a nocturnal voyage of discovery through some of Church’s most significant paintings. Central to this talk will be a close look at one of Church’s paintings, The Meteor of 1860, in which the artist took a significant current event and invested it with both scientific and political meaning.