Aurora Borealis by Frederic Edwin Church, 2 oz Solid Silver Bar

The Osborne Mint Fine Art Collection. Hold fine art in the palm of your hand.

Based on works from the Smithsonian Institute's art collection.

This 2 oz. Solid Silver bar is beautifully designed to resemble the painting, Aurora Borealis by Frederic Edwin Church. The intricate trim of the "picture frame" surrounds the fine detail of the miniature art re-creation. The reverse resembles the back of an actual oil on canvas painting with fine details such as a hanging wire and detailed label which features the signatory O/M mintmark.

Gallery Label - Under a dark Arctic sky, polar explorer Dr. Isaac Israel Hayes's ship, the SS United States, lies frozen in the pack ice at the base of a looming cliff. The auroras above erupt in a cascade of eerie lights. Hayes and Frederic Church were friends, and upon Hayes's return from the Arctic expedition in 1861, he gave Church his sketches as inspiration for this painting. When Hayes returned to New York, the country was in the thick of civil war and, in a rousing speech, he vowed that "God willing, I trust yet to carry the flag of the great Republic, with not a single star erased from its glorious Union to the extreme northern limits of the earth."

During the Civil War, the auroras--usually visible only in the north---were widely interpreted as signs of God's displeasure with the Confederacy for advocating slavery, and of the high moral stakes attached to a Union victory. Viewers understood that Church's painting of the Aurora Borealis (also known as the northern lights) alluded to this divine omen relating to the unresolved conflict.

The original artwork is oil on canvas, dimensions - 56” x 83-1/2”