Lawren Harris
Grounded Icebergs c.1931
Oil on canvas
31.5 x 40 in; 80 x 101.6 cm
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada, Gift from the Estate of R. Fraser Elliott, 2005
© 2015 Estate of Lawren S. Harris
Félix Emile Taunay
Baía de Guanabara Vista da Ilha das Cobras c.1830
Oil on canvas
26.8 x 53.5 in; 68 x 136 cm
Instituto Ricardo Brennand, Recife, Brazil
Photo Credit: Sérgio Schnaider
Martin Johnson Heade
Two Hummingbirds with an Orchid, 1875
Oil on canvas
17.5625 x 27.5 in; 44.61 x 69.85 cm
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, United States, Purchase with David, Helen and Marian Woodward Fund
Thomas Moran
Cliffs of Green River 1874
Oil on canvas
25.5 x 45.6 in; 63.8 x115.3 cm
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas
Pedro Blanes Viale
Cataras del Iguazú (Iguazú Falls), 1916
Oil on canvas
102 x 247
Martin Castillo-Galeria Sur, Montevideo, Uruguay
Charles Sheeler
Classic Landscape, 1931
Oil on canvas
25 x 32 1/4 in; 63.5 x 81.9 cm
National Gallery of Art, Landover United States, Collection of Barney A. Ebsworth
By Raechel Bonomo, AGO Communications Assistant
This summer at the AGO, we’re taking visitors on a landscapist’s journey through portrayals of 14 different countries that illustrate the discovery, succession and expansion of the Americas. The exhibition Picturing the Americas: Landscapes from Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic spans from tropical settings such as Rio de Janeiro to the icy waters of the North. Your summer vacation just got a whole lot cooler.
With the vast size of these landscape paintings — the largest (Niagara Falls, painted in 1878 by William Morris Hunt) measures approximately seven by 10 feet framed — it’s easy to get a bit lost and miss the works’ finer points. So we sifted through the exhibition’s 118 pieces to pick out those tiny details hidden within the expanses of the landscapes. Find your way through the bushes, forests and mountains with our Picturing the Americas By the Numbers guide below.
Covering the vast region of the Americas, these landscapes depict specific terrestrial features unique to the locations, from the flowing waters of Montmorency Falls in Quebec to the volcanoes by Texcoco Lake in Mexico.
Volcanoes: 5 (one volcano appears twice)
Rivers: 46
Icebergs: 17
Rainbows: 2
Waterfalls: 16
In addition to the striking natural forms within the landscapes of Picturing the Americas, artists used animals to populate the scenery, sometimes to show action or to hint at scale. These animals — wild, domesticated or used for labour — contributed immensely to the development of the Americas.
Monkeys: 2
Horses: 145
Birds: 223 (Lagoa das aves no Rio Sao Francisco, 1830, by Carl Von Martius has more than 120!)
Dogs: 16
Sad pigs: 1
Throughout the exhibition, there are several paintings of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. A popular icon of this location is Sugarloaf Mountain, so called because Brazil was one of the world’s major sugar producers in the 1500 and 1600s.
On large plantations, slaves harvested and processed sugarcane. They squeezed the stalks to release their juice, before boiling it and pouring it into a cone-shaped mould called a pão de açúcar (sugarloaf), where it crystallized. Sugarloaves were then exported to Europe. And so the Portuguese called the mountain Pão de Açúcar or Sugarloaf because of its similar shape. Today, this landmark is recognized as one of the most recognizable geological formations in the world.
Sugarloaves: 4
It may look like a tall green hill, but a Sugarloaf can be seen here in the centre of Postcard, 1929, by Brazilian artist Tarsila do Amaral.
Tarsila do Amaral, Brazil, 1886-1973, Postcard, 1929, Oil on canvas. 50.2 x 56.1 in. (127.5 x 142.5 cm)
Private Collection, Rio de Janeiro, Photo Credit: Romulo Fialdini
Science and industry are predominant themes in Picturing the Americas. As populations expanded and settlements grew, the development of technology and infrastructure kept pace, and artists took note as bigger and faster transportation systems made their way across the Americas.
Boats and canoes: 170
Horse-drawn vehicles: 33
Flags: 12
Smokestacks: 17
Monuments to General Wolfe: 1
Visiting soon? Count along with us and share your favourite details from Picturing the Americas on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook using #AmericasAGO. Learn more about Picturing the Americas, buy tickets and see related events and programming at ago.net.
Please note: we did our best to count carefully but due to an element of subjectivity, some numbers above are approximate.