Syria—Ruins by the Sea

In a career that saw him journey far and wide from polar regions to the Equator, from Mexico to Syria, Church was one of the most widely traveled artists of the nineteenth century. This oil sketch is a capriccio, or composed gathering of antique Roman and Crusader-era ruins, adapted from those Church had seen in the southern Mediterranean and in Rome during his Transatlantic travels of 1867-69. The golden early-evening light bathes the scene in a warm glow, with the moon rising dramatically along the horizon line.