The video of this post is at https://youtu.be/djr9uBpextM.
Olana is the home of Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), one of the most prominent members of the Hudson River School. Like all its members, he specialized in painting spectacular American scenery, but Church painted both North and South American vistas. By age 20 Church was well-known. During the 1850s and 1860s, he was among the most famous artists in the U.S. and Europe. His enormous canvases such as Heart of the Andes, 1859 (5.5 foot wide) drew paying audiences of thousands.
Olana
In 1870, Church and his wife began construction of a home overlooking the Hudson River in Greenport, New York. Church designed the building himself, with the assistance of Calvert Vaux, one of the creators of Central Park’s Greensward Plan. The house, Olana, is an appealingly eclectic mix of Persian, Italianate, and Victorian styles. It contains 40-odd paintings by Church and his circle of friends (among them Thomas Cole and Martin Johnson Heade). It’s also filled with exotic items from Church’s extensive travels: furniture, ceramics, carpets, metalwork, costumes, and more.
In the best 19th-century tradition, Olana is situated on a hill with a marvelous view. Church carefully landscaped his 250-acre property to dramatically reveal vistas of the property and the surrounding area: the Hudson River and the Catskill and Taconic Mountains. In an 1884 letter, 62-year-old Church wrote: “I can make more and better landscapes in this way than by tampering with canvas and paint in the studio.” (Quoted in Wikipedia.)
Olana was owned by the Church family until 1966. Because it became a museum (now a New York State Historic Site) without intermediate owners, it’s one of the few examples in the United States of an artist’s home and studio preserved intact. Like other homes that became museums, it doesn’t have many labels … so just relax and enjoy the images.
I had a wonderful combination tour of the house and grounds of Olana in August 2023, despite the fact that it rained off and on. If you visit, be sure to make a reservation before you go: the tours do sell out.
The interior of Olana is fascinating and charming, but the outside is truly spectacular. So I’m going to tease you by showing the interior in this post. We’ll look at the exterior and grounds next week.
Interior: family living quarters
Many of the ceilings, doors, and door frames have custom stencils such as these, on the arches of the first floor.
Gotta love a man who loves books.
Below: over the fireplace in the family sitting room is the largest of Church’s paintings at Olana. It’s a dramatically composed view of Petra, Jordan. The fireplace has vaguely Moorish shapes and motifs to go with the exotic subject of the painting.
Interior: Church’s studio
Teaser for next week’s post: the view from Church’s studio. On a day without rain, it would be spectacular.
One last image for this week: a close-up of the remarkable wallpaper on the second floor.
More
- The images in these two posts are not completely representative of Olana. They’re just the ones that came out best of aspects I chose to photograph. You should definitely visit Olana yourself! But if you can’t, Olana’s site has fantastic photos and videos.
- More great examples of carefully preserved artist’s homes and studios: the Saint Gaudens National Historic Site and Daniel Chester French’s Chesterwood.
- Want wonderful art delivered weekly to your inbox? Check out my Sunday Recommendations list and rewards for recurring support: details here. For examples of favorite recommendations from past years, click here.