Frederic Edwin Church


Frederic Church by R.S. DeLamater, c. 1855. Carte-de-visite, 4 x 2 3/8 inches. New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Olana State Historic Site, OL.1992.57.1-.6.

An acclaimed painter associated with the early American art movement known today as the Hudson River School, Frederic Church traveled extensively, observing and representing the natural world. Some of his most famous paintings were created following journeys far from the Hudson Valley, through the Middle East and spanning the Americas as far north as Arctic glaciers to South American volcanoes. By the late 1850s, Church was not only one of the country’s most renowned painters, but also a leading figure in cultural circles. In addition to achieving financial success through his large-scale landscape paintings, Church was a founding trustee of New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and served briefly as a commissioner of the newly built Central Park. He advocated to create the first state park at Niagara, a natural wonder he promoted through his famous paintings of the falls. Olana, a three-dimensional living landscape, is Church’s masterwork.

Primary Medium: Painting

Primary Stylistic Term: Hudson River School

Fun Fact: In 1869, after returning from 18 months abroad in Europe and the Middle East, Frederic and Isabel Church imported three white donkeys to Olana from Syria. The Church family used these donkeys to travel Olana’s carriage roads.

HAHS Affiliations: Thomas Cole was Frederic Church’s teacher from 1844-1846, and there are two paintings by Thomas Cole in the collection of Olana State Historic Site.

Recommended Publications: Frederic Church’s Olana: Architecture and Landscape as Art by James Anthony Ryan; Frederic Church by John K. Howat; Frederic Church’s Olana on the Hudson, New York edited by Karen Zukowski and Julia B. Rosenbaum; Frederic Church, Winslow Homer, and Thomas Moran: Tourism and the American Landscape by Dr. Barbara Bloemink, Dr. Gail Davidson, Floramae McCarron-Cates, Dr. Sarah Burns, and Dr. Karal Ann Marling (2006)