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Treasures from Olana: Landscapes by Frederic Edwin Church
Oct. 14, 2006 – Jan. 3, 2007

 

Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900) was one of the leading American landscape painters of the nineteenth century.  He studied under Thomas Cole, the father of the Hudson River  School.  Church’s career was transformed by two trips he made to South America in the 1850s, sketching landscapes he later developed into monumental canvases such as Heart of the Andes (1859) and The Huntington's own dramatic painting Chimborazo (1864).  In 1860, Church bought farmland in Hudson, New York where he created an elaborate hilltop home he called Olana.  While Church painted some of his most important canvases at Olana, the house itself absorbed much of his creative energy in his later years and can be considered his final masterpiece.  As one of the few intact homes of an American artist, Olana was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970.  The paintings selected by Frederic Church for his home were carefully chosen to tell his own story, reflecting his interests, travels, and aesthetic.  This exhibition is the first time that these works have traveled as a group.  One of the works is a study for Chimborazo, and The Huntington will supplement the traveling exhibition with an object-in-focus display relating to the full-scale painting in its permanent collection.  An 80-page catalog published by Cornell University Press accompanies the exhibition.

Exhibition venues: 

Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY (2005)

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX (2005)

National Academy Museum, New York, NY (Feb. 9 – April 30, 2006)

Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME (May 20 – Sept. 10, 2006)

The Huntington (Oct. 14, 2006 – Jan. 3, 2007)

Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ (Jan. 27 – June 10, 2007)

 

 

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