How can we appreciate the meaning of a work of art? Knowledge of an object’s past enhances our understanding of it. By looking deep inside a work of art, we come closer to the facts of its origin, to the story of the artist and his creation. What inspired this work of art?

But another history must also be considered if we are to understand art’s meaning in the world. This is the history that takes place outside the work of art: the story of an artist’s audience and of a work of art’s public life. Who admired this work of art and why? A Country Home was one of the most acclaimed paintings of Frederic Church’s (1826–1900) early career. It is also one of the great works of art in the Seattle Art Museum. Why? An overview of that story offers, if not defi nitive answers, then intriguing ways to explore this question. It takes us inside the artist’s creative process to examine how the painting developed. It also looks beyond the painting itself to the people who admired Church’s art in the 1850s and gave it public meaning. We see by viewing A Country Home in the context of related paintings that it was a subject of special meaning, for it persisted in Church’s art for several years. We are compelled to wonder why. What motivated the artist to focus almost exclusively on t his theme from the outset of his career in 1848 to 1854?

And what was the public appeal of Church’s popular country home paintings in the period around 1850? This segment of the painting’s story can help us to appreciate the place of this work of art in our own time and in our own lives. Read >>