Frederic Church’s Olana on the Hudson: Art, Landscape, Architecture

Frederic Edwin Church, the central figure in a group of artists known as the Hudson River School, made his name as a painter of monumental landscapes of New England, South America, and the Arctic. The landscape imagery he painted in the 1840s and 1850s helped shape not only the cultural identity of a new and burgeoning nation, but also of himself when he applied his vision as an artist to the house and property that he named Olana, known today as Olana State Historic Site, located just outside of Hudson, New York, in the heart of the beautiful Hudson River Valley.

Spectacular photography by Larry Lederman of Olana, its landscape and house, inside and out, illustrates one of Church’s greatest works of art. The images, many taken especially for this book, have been shot in all seasons and all weather, and include panoramic and aerial views, sunsets, detail shots of both the house and landscape, as well as interior views of the house. Essays will delve into Church and his inspirations and motivations, illuminating not only the estate he built but also his work as an artist. Church was an observer of the cosmos, and Olana, set in the center of the Hudson River Valley, was his laboratory of observation of all of nature: the sky, the land, the seasons, and the details of everything from flora and fauna and water features, particularly when set in the context of the great naturalist Alexander von Humboldt.