Frederic Church's Olana: Architecture and Landscape as Art

by James Anthony Ryan

The landscape, farm, house and collections that comprise Olana are a work of art conceived and executed by the preeminent mid-19th-century American landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church (1826 1900). Considered one of the most perfectly realized visions of harmony between people and their natural surroundings, Olana is a landmark of Picturesque landscape gardening with a Persian-inspired house at its summit embracing unrivaled panoramic views of the Hudson Valley. A rare American confluence of art and farming, aesthetics and conservation, landscape painting and landscape design, Olana represents a masterpiece of human creative genius. Beautiful four-color paintings and illustrations! Frederic Church was a student of Thomas Cole and a major figure in the Hudson River School of landscape painting. Called by Church the center of the world, Olana's Perrsian-style house and romantically-designed grounds are a perfect Eden of picturesque beauty.

Genres: Art, Architecture

104 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2001

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overview and general info about Church’s life, career, and of course, his “last great artwork”, his Persian-style home Olana. The years and years of planning and work that went into every exquisite detail is mind boggling! The house is stunning, and each room’s view, as well as the landscape, were created in a painterly way, each a composition of some kind, the way Church laid out his paintings. Olana is a must-see if you’re visiting upstate NY!

[John Peel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Olana - home and workshop of artist Frederic Church - is an amazing, beautiful and inspiring building. This book (written by its site manager for 20 years) does the edifice full justice - it is detailed (but never boring) and superbly illustrated. A great book about a great place. Visit Olana - and read this book!

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overview. Stellar selection of images.

[Lisa-Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an indulgence because I visited Olana in the Hudson River Valley last month and could not stop thinking about it. Church (no relation) was a landscape painter in the 1800s, but what really gets me is that he built this incredibly beautiful home and landscape at the top of a mountain in the Hudson River Valley in 1870 that takes your breath away. Church created landscapes around his home just like he created paintings. He planned each view, each window, each carriage path, each porch, just for the views and vistas he could create. “I can make more and better landscapes in this way than by tampering with canvas and paint in the studio,” Church wrote. Church’s paintings hang in the most famous museums in the world, but I liked his real-life landscapes at Olana the best. He planted thousands of trees. Today, those trees have grown and the views have changed, but the Hudson River is a focal point from any angle. The Catskills are to the west, and the foreground is studded with specimen plants. This book has beautiful photographs of it all, and recites the story of Church’s family life at Olana, where his artist’s studio is still intact, just as he left it in 1900.