Wadsworth Atheneum acquire Frederic Church Meteor
November 13 2025
Picture: Wadsworth Atheneum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Wadsworth Atheneum announced their acquisition earlier this year of Frederic Church's The Meteor. The picture was acquired from a private collection through the dealers Hazlitts.
According to the museum's Facebook post:
A rare meteor procession streaked across the North American skies on the night of July 20, 1860.
Frederic Church saw it from his farm near Catskill in upstate New York. The extraordinary sight seared itself into his memory. He captured the meteor on paper in this magnificent painting which he kept his entire life.
Church saw the fiery comet as a warning of national catastrophe as tensions over slavery threatened to tear the country apart. A #Hartford native, Church believed American democracy was born in our city—yet in the summer of 1860, he saw it in crisis. The Civil War began less than a year later.
