Frederic Church's Olana: Architecture and Landscape as Art

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.