In the Shadow of Olana: Hudson Valley Home of Artist Frederic Church

Memories of Growing Up Near Olana, Landscape Painter Frederic Church's Greatest Masterpiece

In the mid-nineteenth century, artist Frederic Edwin Church constructed Olana, a fantasy Persian castle located atop a high hill, with sweeping views of river, mountains, and sky.

The castle is Moorish, but Olana is not located in the Middle East. It may surprise you to learn that this exotic home can be found in upstate New York's Hudson River Valley, tucked away off Route 9G in the sleepy little town of Hudson, New York.

Frederic Church (1826-1900) was a landscape painter and a member of the Hudson River School, a nineteenth century art movement that put America on the cultural map. At a time when Europe did not acknowledge our fledgling nation as culturally significant, Church was one of the first American artists to be internationally recognized. His most famous works include Niagara (1857), The Heart of the Andes (1859), and Morning in the Tropics (1877.)

As a young student of Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole, Church sketched views of the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains from atop a high bluff in Hudson then called Red Hill. The views made a lifelong impression on Church. He later purchased the very piece of land where he had sketched alongside Cole, and constructed his dream house Olana, considered by many to be his greatest masterpiece. The mansion, its contents, and the surrounding 250 acres of carefully designed landscape all look very much the same as they did in Church's day. Olana is Church's most significant artistic work, and one of the most important artistic residences in the United States--a unified, harmonious vision of architecture, landscape and interior design.