Hudson River Valley: Olana a State Historic Site. Olana is one of the most important artistic
residences and planned landscapes in the United States; it is the last and
perhaps greatest masterpieces created by Hudson River School artist Frederic
Edwin Church (1826-1900). Church
designed the landscape and his Persian style home on and around the same
hilltop where, as an eighteen-year-old student, he sketched spectacular views
of the Catskill Mountains and the river alongside his mentor Thomas Cole.
Above: The house.
Frederic and Isabel Church, impressed by the
architecture they saw on their travels in cities like Beirut, Jerusalem
and Damascus, envisioned a home at Olana that incorporated Middle Eastern
elements and designs. The contents of the house today, accumulated by Church
over a 30-year period, include furniture, tapestries, rugs, bronzes, paintings,
sculptures, and the myriad objects collected by Church to represent the major
civilizations and religions of the world. The color scheme and stenciling that Church designed in
1870 remain, and from Church's studio the visitor can still see the vistas
recorded in his paintings.
A stylized overview of the Olana landscape.
Olana – The landscape.
Olana's landscape was created over a period
of forty years of Frederic Church's life and many consider it his greatest
work. Over 250 acres of an artist-designed landscape can be experienced by
walking over five miles of carriage trails that bisect the property.
Above: visitors relax looking out onto
the Hudson River, which bends towards infinity, the view that inspired many of
Church’s paintings.
Olana – the paintings. Frederic Edwin Church, The Bend in the
River, c. 1870-73, oil on off-white academy board.
Note.
The view in painting is the same as the photograph above.
Olana – the paintings. Frederic Church
constructed the landscape at Olana in the same manner that he constructed
landscapes in his paintings: with an eye to composition, balance, and fidelity
to nature. Although Olana was a working farm, expected to turn a profit, Church
also wanted the property to be pleasing to look at. He used the Hudson River
and mountains in the distance as a background to a composition with carefully
planned foreground and middle ground elements.
Above. Fredric Edwin Church, Catskill
Mountains from the Home of the Artist, c.1871, oil on canvas.
Olana – the cutting garden. Throughout his life, Church continued to
develop the grounds, laying out miles or roads and planting thousand of tree,
as he created this “living landscape”.
Olana – the garden. Rustic benches of Church's
design and rustic railings have been recreated on site.