Happy 200th Birthday, Frederic Edwin Church

It's the 200th birthday of a favorite artist! Frederic Edwin Church was born May 4, 1826. Here are a few of his paintings: "The Heart of the Andes" (1859), "Cotopaxi" (1862), "The Icebergs" (1861), and "West Rock, New Haven" (1849). Stephen Jay Gould wrote an article about that "Andes" painting and its scientific significance. Church had painted it in tribute to German scientist Alexander von Humboldt, who was the first European to attempt to climb the ice-covered mountain in the picture, Chimborazo in Ecuador. Church was even going to ship the large painting (5-1/2 feet by 10 feet) to Humboldt in Berlin, so he could see it, but Humboldt died before those arrangements could be made. Today, the painting is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in the same room as Emanuel Leutze's famous "Washington Crossing the Delaware."

There is a brand-new biography of church by Victoria Johnson, "Glorious Country: How the Artist Frederic Church Brought the World to America and America to the World." 

 

Church's "Heart of the Andes"

Something that I posted on Facebook three years ago. During the first week of March 2020, Beth and I visited New York and then flew to Tucson to see our daughter Emily. But during that time, the pandemic was heading toward lockdown. It was weird and worrisome to be away from home as grocery stores were running out of soap and paper products. The three of us had one bottle of hand disinfectant to go around.  

This is Frederic Edwin Church’s 1859 painting “The Heart of the Andes,” in the Metropolitan Museum o Art. Run away now if you don’t want to read the following historical daydream, LOL… Still here? Okay. Thanks for your patience….. Alexander von Humboldt, whose 250th birth-anniversary was last September, influenced a generation of young scientists, writers, and artists with his journals of exploration of the Caribbean and Latin and South America. He was one of the last great scientist polymaths, not only writing on several areas of science; he also caught people’s imagination with his uniting of scientific investigation with aesthetic truth, emotional health, and moral uplift. He reclaimed the ancient Greek word "cosmos" for modern thinking. So… artist Church, famous among the Hudson River School painters, was so inspired by Humboldt’s vision, that he personally retraced Humboldt’s journey through Ecuador, took detailed notes and sketches of the landscape and fauna, and painted this idealized landscape that includes a variety of Ecuadoran plants and climates, with the snow-covered Chimborazo volcano in the background. (Humboldt had been the first European to attempt to reach the Chimborazo peak, not quite making it but reaching an inspiring height.) Church displayed “The Heart of the Andes” to great acclaim beginning in April 1859. Church planned to ship it to Berlin so that Humboldt could see it himself—airdrops to each others’ phones being sadly unavailable in 1859 LOL—-but the great old man died before the plan could begin. Even the famous paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould wrote an article about “The Heart of the Andes,” noting that another Humboldt disciple, Charles Darwin, ironically helped to specialize science differently than Humboldt’s encyclopedic approach. But the pleasure and inspiration of scientific investigation do remain. It was meaningful, nerdy happiness for me to visit this painting within a year after I got to see both Ecuador and also Humboldt University for the first time. 

This famous painting is in the same room. 

Happy birthday, Alexander von Humboldt

Alexander von Humboldt was born on this day in 1769! He was the German polymath and naturalist whose work on botanical geography established the field of biogeography. In 1799-1804, he explored South America then traveled to what was then called New Spain and finally visited the U.S., where he met President Jefferson. Jefferson, in turn, sent some of Humboldt's data out to Lewis and Clark, who were already along the Missouri River. Humboldt revitalized the ancient Greek word Kosmos to unify aspects of the natural world--and our intellectual, aesthetic, and emotional pleasure that we derive from Nature. He influenced many scientists, artists, and writers, including Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, Frederic Edwin Church, Jules Verne, Walt Whitman, and numerous others. Anti-German sentiment during World War I erased his tremendous popularity in this country, but many places in the U.S. are named for him. Two years ago we got to visit Humboldt University in Berlin. This portrait is in the nearby Nationalgalerie. ...

If you're still interested at this point, LOL, here is a quotation from Smithsonian Magazine. "[Humboldt] claimed to sleep only four hours a night and called coffee 'concentrated sunbeams.' Among his many scientific achievements, Humboldt theorized the spreading of the continental landmasses through plate tectonics, mapped the distribution of plants on three continents and charted the way air and water move to create bands of climate at different latitudes and altitudes. He tracked what became known as the Humboldt Current in the Pacific Ocean and created what he called isotherms to chart mean temperatures around the globe. He observed the relationship between deforestation and changes in local climate, located the magnetic equator and found in the geological strata fossil remains of both plants and animals that he understood to be precursors to modern life forms, acknowledging extinction before many others." 

Another article: https://www.savacations.com/genius-alexander-von-humboldt-latin-americas-second-columbus/?fbclid=IwAR1id_WUUVWIlohQNFnXAg_yXFf3NQ25U-UitlSmN7xXW000d_4rWhFb0XU#a-new-concept-of-nature

"Origin of Species," November 24, 1859.

One of the most important scientific books in history, Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, was published on this day in 1859. Darwin used his researches since the 1830s to formulate a testable mechanism for biological development: in the struggle for existence, a variation in an organism that is conducive to survival and reproduction is passed to the organism's descendants. 

Various writers influenced Darwin: Malthus on population and resources, de Candolle on struggle, Lamarck on biological development, Lyell on geology, the anonymous Vestiges of Creation on species change, Humboldt on the interconnectedness of natural phenomena, and others.

If you know the story, Darwin had considered biological and geological origins since his 1830s world trip, but delayed publishing his hypotheses and was, in the 1850s, researching marine invertebrates when his friend, the pioneering geologist Charles Lyell, alerted him that Alfred Russel Wallace, doing his own research in the Malay islands, was developing a similar theory of species transmutation. Though ill, and bereaved about his young son's death, Darwin hurried to complete this book, and published several more books over the next twenty years about botany and species development. Wallace never seemed chagrined at all that Darwin established priority on theory, dedicated his own classic book The Malay Archipelago to Darwin, and contributed his own insights about natural selection. Darwin used his own fame and influence to help Wallace (who unlike Darwin was not of the aristocracy) gain his proper standing in the scientific community.

Subsequent researchers were able to incorporate Mendel's research in heredity with Darwin's principles. The first edition of 1250 copies of "Origin" sold out the same day. The first American edition appeared in January 1860. This is the Missouri Botanical Garden's copy of the first edition.

Humboldt's "Views of Nature"

I love antique books, and I like to find notable science books from the nineteenth century. Every so
often, I write about them on this blog, teaching myself many new things in the process. Click the label "science" below, and you'll find my previous posts (along with my Galapagos photos!).

The red book is book is the French translation of Alexander von Humboldt’s Ansichten der Natur: mit wissenschaftlichen Erläuterungen (1808, expanded edition 1849). The book was translated into English as Aspects [or Views] of nature, in different lands and different climates with scientific elucidations. 

Laura Dassow Walls wrote a wonderful book (which I discovered before Wulf’s, below), The Passage to Cosmos: Alexander Humboldt and the Shaping of America (University of Chicago Press, 2009). She writes:

“…years before, when in Berlin’s darkest days, his homeland conquered by Napoleon, [Humboldt] had put together what he called his favorite book, Ansichten der Natur, a collection of essays recalling the beauty and pathos of the tropics. In his preface he had stated, ‘It is to minds oppressed with care that these pages are especially consecrated.’ Humboldt was evoking the wisdom of Kant, who had written that in an age of oppression, the role of the intellectual was to energize the people with hope for better times, les they lose heart in the possibility of reform and accept, in Muthu’s words, ‘the injustice of the modern world as an inevitable necessity.’ Kant’s model was Humboldt’s old friend and teacher Moses Mendelssohn, who had despite every reason for a debilitating pessimism had believed it yet possible to create tolerance and civil rights for Jews. Humboldt’s language of nature, of harmony and freedom, provided not escape but hope that change is possible, oppression can be lifted, and injustice made right. His New World became a state on which a new future might be reimaged for all humanity” (47-48).

Andrea Wulf’s book, The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World (Knopf, 2017), has this passage: “In Views of Nature, Humboldt showed how nature could have an influence on people’s imagination. Nature, he wrote, was in a mysterious communication with our ‘inner feelings.’ … What we might take for granted today—that there is a correlation between the external world and our mood—was a revelation to Humboldt’s readers. Poets had engaged with such ideas but never a scientist. Views of Nature again described nature as a web of life, with plants and animals dependent on each other… The lessons that he had begun with his sketch after the ascent of Chimborazo, the Naturgemälde, now became broader. The concept of Naturgemälde became Humboldt’s approach through which to explain his new vision” (133)

She writes earlier that Humboldt’s “infographic" painting of Chimborazo was named
Naturgemälde, meaning a “painting of nature” but https://geographical.co.uk/places/mapping/item/1542-the-invention-of-nature
implying a sense of wholeness and unity (88). See also

Wulf goes on to write that Goethe, Thoreau, Emerson, Darwin, Jules Verne, and others read Views of Nature. Walls also writes considerably about Humboldt’s influence.

Table of contents of the 1850 American edition.

Happy 250th Birthday, Humboldt!

Today (Sept. 14th) is the 250th anniversary of the birth of naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. It's been fun to become aware of Humboldt during his anniversary times (he died 160 years ago last May). As this article indicates, he was the first to develop an understanding of ecosystems, wrote (in the 1830s) about the dangers of deforestation and human-caused climate change, and brought the ancient Greek word "cosmos" into modern usage to describe interrelations on earth and in space, and between physical reality and human art and feeling. He influenced a wide range of people like Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, Thoreau, artist Frederic Edwin Church, Walt Whitman, and many others. Thoreau figured out how to write "Walden" after he read Humboldt. Beth and I enjoyed visiting Humboldt University in Berlin this past June.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/climate/the-forgotten-man-of-science

See my earlier posts about Humboldt: http://paulstroble.blogspot.com/search/label/Humboldt%20%28Alexander%20von%29

Humboldt's Cosmos

My ongoing appreciation of classic books of science includes this set, an eagerly awaited, best-selling work of its time.

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was the preeminent scientist and explorer of his day. Although forgotten in popular consciousness for a long time, he has been the subject of recent, appreciative books by Laura Dassow Walls, Aaron Sachs, and Andrea Wulf. (I’m leading a book discussion on Wulf’s book next month.) Humboldt influenced Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, John Muir, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Frederic Edwin Church, and many other artists, even Edgar Allan Poe, and he visited dignitaries like Thomas Jefferson and Simon Bolivar. He traveled extensively through Latin America and Asia; his 1804 travel book about South America accompanied Darwin on his own voyage.

Humboldt reclaimed the ancient Greek word kosmos and adapted it for his view of the harmony of the earth and the heavens. He combined a careful scientific method with an aesthetic appreciation of beauty that can together lead to a wholistic, contemplative view of life. One reason, I think, for recent interest in Humboldt is the fact that he predicted human-caused climate change.


His Kosmos – Entwurf einer physischen Weltbeschreibung (Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe) was based on his lectures at the University of Berlin and were published in 1845 through 1862, the fifth and last volume a posthumous completion of his notes. It has been translated into several languages. Cosmos was nothing short of a comprehensive vision of the universe via science, history, art, philosophy, and other subjects.  The first volume surveys not only the physical phenomena of the earth—flora and fauna, volcanoes, climate, geography, etc.—but also outer space. In the next volume, he considers how nature has been perceived in different period of history and through the work of artists. Volumes 3 through 5 go into additional detail about geology, geography, and astronomy.

Here is an article by Laura Dassow Walls, “Introducting Humboldt’s Cosmos.”
https://www.humansandnature.org/introducing-humboldt-s-cosmos

Here is an article about Humboldt’s influence on Darwin:
https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/alexander-von-humboldt

Humboldt's "Personal Narrative"

I love antique books, during the last few years I've been collecting a few notable science books from
the nineteenth century. I like to write about them on this blog, teaching myself many new things in the process.

The last time I wrote about one of my science books was the August 7, 2017 post. Here is a book that I intended to take on my recent Galapagos trip: Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, During the Years 1799-1804, by Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland, published by M. Carey in Philadelphia in 1815. This translation was first published in London. Darwin had brought a copy with him on his long Beagle voyage, and I thought it would be a fun and very nerdy thing to do, too. Thank goodness I didn't, because my bags were already heavy, and the trip was physically tiring.

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was a German explorer and naturalist and a pioneering scientist in geography, biogeography, and ecology. His multi-volume work Kosmos was a very

popular account that drew together several fields of the physical sciences. I will write about those books, too, eventually. The Humboldt Current off the South American coast, and many places and institutions are named for him, although he isn't well known today.

Darwin and artist Frederick Edwin Church were inspired by Humboldt to journey to South America, where Humboldt had crafted accurate maps, the envy of cartographers. I formerly admired Humboldt,
I now almost adore him, wrote Darwin. Alfred Russel Wallace, explorer John Muir, and  many others drew inspiration from the German scientist.

Here is a good article about the book: http://naturalhistorynetwork.org/journal/articles/1-alexander-von-humboldt’s-personal-narrative-of-travels-to-the-equinoctial-regions-of-america/

Here is a good article about how Humboldt's narrative influenced Darwin: http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/Chancellor_Humboldt.html

On Humboldt and his influence, I've been reading Laura Dassow Walls, Alexander von Humboldt and the Shaping of America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009). See also Aaron Sachs, The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism (New York: Penguin Books, 2006). On Church and his painting The Heart of the Andes, see Stephen Jay Gould, “Church, Humboldt, and Darwin: The Tension and Harmony of Art and Science,” in Franklin Kelly, with Stephen Jay Gould and James Anthony Ryan, The Paintings of Frederic Edwin Church. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1989. 94-107.

Here is an upcoming meeting in Ecuador--at the university that facilitated our Galapagos trip this month--in celebration of Humboldt's 250th birthday in September. https://humboldt250-ecuador.org

*****

Here is the antique book that I actually did take on the trip. It's an 1890 printing of Darwin's Origin of Species, which had gone on someone's trip to Columbia in 1950. I incorporated the book in to my poetry book Backyard Darwin and thought that I had to take this Origin to the Galapagos! I kept it safe from sun screen, however.