The Art and Architectural Trust

As in the best of Church's work
Rocky Forest Pool, transcends its literal depiction and
Raises the Human Spirit
To a Sublime Level of Transcendent Spirituality.

There are only 8 years between Freeman Brook (?) near Cuttingsville, Vt. August 1849 and Rocky Forest Pool 57.

Compare that, with Church's Niagara from the American Side 1867 which he painted 'relying solely on his own pencil drawing of October 1856,' - 11 years earlier. Tim Barringer, Assistant Professor in the History of Art, Yale University.

'Nothing is accidental; he has meditated his thought, breathed his inspiration, lived in the spirit of his subject, so that every stroke of his pencil is guided by the unerring instinct of faith in that which he beholds.' Russell's Magazine 5th August 1859.

Again, 'Nothing is accidental; he has meditated his thought, breathed his inspiration, lived in the spirit of his subject, so that every stroke of his pencil is guided by the unerring instinct of faith in that which he beholds.' Russell's Magazine, 5th August 1859.

There are three representations of The Trinity within Rocky Forest Pool '57. A trilogy or Trinity of Trinities.

Its main lesson is - to find God you have to follow the Way of the Cross and the Light on the Water - which represents Christ - and which flows towards the Trinity of Trees representing The Holy Trinity in the luminous evanescent distance.

To activate the inter-active analysis of the Christian symbolism and find the Trinity of Trinities, please go to: Explore the Painting.

Preparatory sketches (page 2 of 2)

Freeman Brook (?) Near Cuttingsville. Vt. August 1849
(23 x 28.6 cms)
Sketch inscribed in graphite on off-white paper. Olana, Cat. No.238. OL.1980.1428.
Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, New York.

In this pencil sketch there is a similar shaped and clear large Cross. Church has thickly and intentionally marked it darker than his other lines in the drawing. The Cross is made up of two intersecting saplings (or small trees) overhanging the main rock in the brook, above which it bestows a protective blessing. It is evident that Church has thickened the intersecting lines of the trees - the Cross - intentionally.

Church has seemingly positioned this Cross so prominently in the middle of the sketch, as an aide-mémoire - to be part of his visual diary which he consulted continually.

The fallen pointing tree is in the foreground - to the right - in all three pictures. Finally, in Rocky Forest Pool 1857 Church combined the log in the water (in Freeman Brook ?) with the pointing tree (in Freeman Brook ?) and turned it into the one, fallen pointing tree of the finished work. Three years later he used the same fallen pointing tree and the same small naturalistic Cross in Twilight in the Wilderness 1860 to impart the same Christian 'lesson.'

The small Cross of branches which is part of the fallen pointing tree in Rocky Forest Pool 1857 is in the same aspect of benediction above and over the water as the larger but similar one in, Freeman Brook (?) near Cuttingsville, Vt. The smaller Cross in Rocky Forest Pool 1857 has now found its spot closer to the Light on the Water.

Here, the trio or Trinity of trees -The Trinity - are on the stratified out-crop of rock to the right as well as on the left. Compare also Rocky Cascade (Cat no. 329 OL1977 0171 Olana State Historic Site) and its stratified out-crop of rock (to the right again) which figures in all four works in the same position - to the middle right in the sketches and to the middle right foreground in Rocky Forest Pool 1857.

The main rocks and boulders in the river are all similar in shape; compare those in the preparatory oil sketch In the New England Woods 1855-1865 with those of Rocky Forest Pool 1857. Compare also, the trio or Trinityof trees in Heart of the Andes 1859 and Twilight in the Wilderness 1860.

The preparatory sketches In the New England Woods 1855-1865 and Freeman Brook (?) Near Cuttingsville. Vt. August 1849 appear to be so closely related as to be the same location from slightly different angles. All three works depict the same scene.

One year after his commemorative painting To the Memory of Cole 1848* with the small but quietly commanding presence of the Cross marking the grave of his mentor, Church began to think of more abstract ways of incorporating the Cross of Jesus into a natural landscape.

After this pencil drawing it took another 6 years before he would incorporate it discretely into the coded vernacular of his paintings, starting with,
1.) The 'Golden Cross of Light' in, The Andes of Ecuador 1855. Then came:

2.) The small Cross of branches in Rocky Forest Pool 1857.

3.) The Cross of Light from, The Evening Star 1858.

4.) the small Cross of bark in, Twilight in the Wilderness 1860 and

5.) the Cross of the mast from a ship wreck in The Icebergs 1861-62.

Church continued to show literal depictions of The Cross in The Andes of Ecuador 1855 and Cross in the Wilderness 1857, Heart of the Andes 1859 etc.

* Sold for $4,732,000 by Sotheby's, New York in May 1999.

One year later, in May 2000, 'Mt Newport on Mt Desert Island' (43.8 x 63.5cms) sold for $4,186,000 by Christie's New York.