See the world through the eyes of Church
New exhibition celebrates 200 years of the influential artist
Frederic Edwin Church, the preeminent landscape painter and mainstay figure of the Hudson River School of art, was born 200 years ago. His life and work was shaped by his extensive global travel, clearly reflected with the creation of Olana, the home he built overlooking the Hudson River.
A new exhibition opening at the Olana State Historic Site on May 17, 2026, Frederic Church: Global Artist, will explore the artist’s varied influences through his infamously immersive paintings, drawings, oil sketches, and works from the artist’s collection of photographs.
In addition to rarely seen works from the Olana collection, the exhibition will feature consummate loans from a number of major public and private collections, including the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, The New York Historical, and The Terra Foundation for American Art.
“Frederic Church: Global Artist reveals the extent of Frederic Church's artistic ambition as a global traveler in the age of empires,” noted Tim Barringer, Paul Mellon Professor of the History of Art, Yale University and co-editor of a new publication on Church. “It explores his fascination with the natural world, with the hemispheric cultures and histories of the Americas, the Caribbean and the Middle East, and presents Olana as the outcome of his world-wide entanglements.”
Frederic Church: Global Artist will be on display in the Sharp Family Gallery at the Olana State Historic Site from May 17 through October 25, 2026. To learn more, visit https://olana.org/fc200/
Pictured, from top: Frederic Edwin Church, Cayambe, 1858. Oil on canvas. Olana State Historic Site, Hudson. Photo by niki@hvny.info.
Frederic Church: Global Artist Opening Conversation
Saturday, May 16, 2026 from 3 to 4:30pm
Cost of admission: $15, free for members
Join esteemed curators and scholars for a special opening panel conversation around the exhibition Frederic Church: Global Artist. This flagship exhibition of Church’s bicentennial will bring visitors into Church’s expansive view of the world, featuring works inspired by Church’s travels across the Americas, the Middle East, and the North Atlantic. This discussion will be held in the Frederic Church Center for Art & Landscape. Register
Members Exhibition Preview & Reception
Saturday, May 16, 2026 from 5-7pm
Sharp Family Gallery & East Lawn
RSVP to Hannah Diamond by email or by calling 518-751-6857.
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