The Heart of the Andes by William Forrest; Frederic Edwin Church; Day and Son Lithographers; Galerie Goupil & Cie is a significant hand-colored engraving on wove paper, created in 1862. This print translates Frederic Edwin Church's massive 1859 oil painting of the same title, an iconic work of American Luminism, into a reproducible format accessible to a wider European and American audience.
The complex nature of the authorship reflects the commercial realities of disseminating major artworks in the mid-19th century. Church provided the original composition, while the intricate engraving was executed by the Scottish artist William Forrest, based on preparatory lithographs produced by Day and Son. The entire venture and market distribution were managed by the famed Parisian art dealer Galerie Goupil & Cie. This collaborative process ensured the meticulous reproduction of Church’s sublime landscape, emphasizing dramatic lighting and immense geographical scale.
Produced during the period of 1851 to 1875, this work reflects the era's Victorian fascination with global exploration and the visual documentation of the natural world. Forrest’s execution of the prints allowed the image to travel, connecting the traditions of Scottish fine art engraving with high-demand American landscape painting. The addition of hand-coloring distinguishes this print, transforming the monochromatic impression into a rich, detailed visual experience that approximated the chromatic intensity of the original oil painting.
This impressive example of reproductive prints allowed audiences who could not view the celebrated painting access to Church’s renowned composition. The final work captures the detailed atmospheric effects and the romantic grandeur of the South American mountain ranges. This specific print is housed within the collections of the National Gallery of Art, serving as an important historical record of art marketing and reproduction during the nineteenth century. As a result of the careful cataloging and digitization efforts, images of this work are frequently available in the public domain for scholarly study.
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