America / 1879
The Monastery of San Pedro (Our Lady of the Snows)
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs The Monastery of San Pedro (Our Lady of the Snows) as painting (America · 1879).
This painting was commissioned by Cleveland banker and railroad executive Hinman B. Hurlbut (1819–1884), who also cofounded the Cleveland Museum of Art.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this painting as oil on canvas and credits Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826–1900).
The museum's collection notes: Although the location that inspired the painting has been subject to scholarly debate, many believe it derives from Church’s travels through the Ecuadorean Andes nearly a quarter century earlier. The composition reads as an allegory of spiritual salvation: perched atop a dramatic cliff, a brilliantly backlit monastery overlooks a shadowed foreground where a solitary figure navigates a rugged path.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtThe Monastery of San Pedro (Our Lady of the Snows)Original explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.