Life After Life – Preserving Olana The Evelyn and Maurice Sharp Gallery | May 19 – October 31, 2012

Nearly a half century ago, Olana was almost destroyed. Olana Preservation, a group of concerned art historians, preservationists and individuals living in the Hudson Valley and New York City, joined forces to save Frederic Church’s three-dimensional masterpiece. A LIFE Magazine article entitled “Must This Mansion Be Destroyed?” brought national attention to the campaign and ensured the venture’s success. In 1966 Olana Preservation and New York State partnered to purchase Olana and establish it as a state historic site. This collaborative …Read More

OVERLOOK – Teresita Fernández confronts Frederic Church at Olana Evelyn and Maurice Sharp Gallery | May 14 – November 5, 2017

Two weeks before the scheduled debut of Hudson River School landscape painter Frederic Church’s masterwork The Icebergs, Fort Sumter was bombarded marking the start of the American Civil War. Instead of cancelling the unveiling of the painting at Goupil’s Gallery, Church re-titled his masterpiece: “The North” Church’s Picture of Icebergs showing his support for the northern cause.

Church also pledged exhibition fees to assist the Union’s Patriotic Fund for the families of Union soldiers. Less than a month later, in …Read More

Farm: Agricultural Life of the Hudson Valley – Photographs by Brandt Bolding Olana Coachman’s House Gallery | June 18 – October 30, 2011

Brandt Bolding’s photographs have been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the northeastern part of the U.S. and have appeared in newspapers, journals, and publications by various preservation organizations in New York State. He became interested in historic preservation in the course of his architectural and interior design work, photographing and recording historical architectural details. This interest evolved into preservation and photographic documentation of the historic agricultural structures and farms in his home state of New York, …Read More

In the Footsteps of Frederic Church – Photos by Larry Lederman Olana Coachman’s House | June 5 – October 31, 2010

Larry Lederman is a photographer and writer who has traveled to many of the locations Frederic Church visited. This exhibition displayed photographs of a number of sites that Frederic Church painted and sought to evoke his artistic vision and explore his art. The photographs affirmed that many of the wilderness enclaves Church painted still exist, preserved as part of our heritage because of the beauty that he and other nineteenth century painters captured.

Fern Hunting Among These Picturesque Mountains – Frederic Edwin Church in Jamaica June 5 – October 31, 2010

In 1865, Frederic Church, an avid traveler with a special passion for the tropics, journeyed to Jamaica. This was unlike his previous expeditions, as he and his wife, Isabel, were escaping from intense personal grief: the loss of their two young children. Throwing himself into the exploration and documentation of the island, the renowned artist produced a variety of works ranging from delicate pen sketches of palm trees to oil sketches of the atmospheric Blue Mountains and brilliant sunsets. The importance of …Read More

Glories of The Hudson – Frederic Edwin Church’s Views from Olana Evelyn and Maurice Sharp Gallery | May 23 – October 12, 2009

The site is the result of a careful study of the river-banks, and commands so many views of varied beauty, that all the glories of the Hudson may be said to circle it. – H. W. French, Art and Artists in Connecticut, 1879.

In 1609, Henry Hudson sailed up the river that now bears his name. This exhibition marked the Quadricentennial of his discovery by highlighting Frederic Church’s sketches of the prospect from his hilltop home overlooking the river.

Church made his first sketch of the …Read More

Wayfinding: Imaging History with (Our)Story Olana State Historic Site | May 12, 2017 – November 3, 2018

Walking the carriage roads Frederic Church created, one becomes enchanted—not only with the experience of the surrounding beauty, but also with the notion that in the twenty-first century one is having a parallel experience with the most influential early American painter from The Hudson River School of Art, by literally walking in Church’s footsteps.

What did he see then? What do we see now?

What did he hear then? What do we hear now?

What if Church’s experiences have …Read More