Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900)
5720 State Route 9G, Hudson, NY 12534
518-751-0344
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In the mid-nineteenth century, Frederic Church achieved success and fame as an American artist. His skill at aesthetic composition began with landscape painting and extended beyond traditional artistic mediums, influencing the development of this landscape and the spectacular views that make up the Olana experience. Between 1860 and 1900, Church, created a 250-acre living landscape, one of the most intact and well-preserved artistic environments in the United States. Olana encompasses many elements–the lake, the native woodlands and meadows, the historic house, the farm, the extensive carriage road system, the landscape’s far-reaching views, and the site’s rich collections. As you walk around the buildings or follow the historic carriage roads, you will see how Church used the natural beauty of the site and the views beyond to create dramatic works of art in nature around every corner and every bend in the road.
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“I have made about 1 ¾ miles of road this season, opening entirely new and beautiful views. I can make more and better landscapes in this way than by tampering with canvas and paint in the studio.”
— Frederic Church to Erastus Dow Palmer, October 18, 1884 (Albany Institute of History & Art)
Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900)
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.
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Frederic Church trained with Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School and an ardent advocate for preserving the American wilderness. He studied with Cole in Catskill from 1844 to 1846, exploring the natural beauty of the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains. It was during this time that Church first visited and sketched the property that would ultimately become Olana. With his wife, Isabel Carnes Church (1836-1899), he began creating Olana in 1860 with the purchase of a 126-acre farm, where they built a farmhouse known as Cosy Cottage. In the 1860s and 1870s, Church transformed a modest family farm into a larger operation, providing food for his family and visitors to Olana.
Through subsequent land purchases and an evolving design, the family’s country home was constructed in several stages near Olana’s hilltop between 1870 and 1888. Collaborating with architect Calvert Vaux, Church created the elaborate ornamentation of his home. He carefully planned his visitors’ views as they traveled through the property, ending their journey with the most spectacular vistas at the top of the hill. In 1872, the family, which now included their four children Frederic, Theodore, Louis, and Isabel, moved into the new house at the top of the hill. The property, long referred to affectionately as “the farm,” would be named Olana by the late 1870s.
Although Church painted at his Hudson Valley farm from the time he purchased it, he did not build a studio here until about 1864-65. Here Church sketched and painted, completing many of his major works. When he added a studio wing to his house in the late 1880s, Church dismantled this building. Church continued to paint throughout his life, but the onset of arthritis made painting difficult. He continued to find artistic expression in shaping landscapes, spending more time imagining, planning, and affecting the Olana landscape than any other artistic endeavor in his life.
After the death of Church’s daughter-in-law at Olana in 1964, a grassroots movement led by art historian David Huntington saved the site from destruction, and New York State acquired Olana in 1966. As a New York State Historic Site and National Historic Landmark, Olana embodies Church’s artistic vision and inspires visitors from around the world.
