Aurora Borealis - Northern Lights by Frederic Edwin Church
"Aurora Borealis" was painted by Frederic Edwin Church in 1865. It is an oil on canvas, 142.3 x 212.2 cm (56 x 83 1/2 in.), and it is in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. This magnificent 7 foot- wide masterpiece shows a brilliant display of northern lights across the Alaskan sky and vividly reflected in the ocean.

Frederic Edwin Church was part of the American Hudson River School. He was committed to the natural sciences and at the same time, he was concerned with including a spiritual dimension in his works. In 1861 he travelled to Labrador and Newfoundland to view the icebergs. It was there that he experienced the Aurora Borealis, or "Nothern lights," for the first time. This powerful painting portrays Church's quest for the sublime in nature.