 Church was inspired by the Prussian naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt, and his 1845 treatise "Kosmos".Humboldt was among the last of the great scientific generalists, and his fame became similar to that of Albert Einstein a century later.In the second volume of "Kosmos", Humboldt described the influence of landscape painting on the study of the natural world—holding that art is among the highest expressions of the love of nature—and challenging artists to portray the "physiognomy" of the landscape.