Returning to Olana
Frederic Church takes one last stroll around the house and gardens
On Saturday, August 17th, 2024, I attended a mindfulness workshop hosted by Diana Pappas of PappasBland at Olana State Historic Site near Hudson New York.
Diana’s program was hosted by the nonprofit, The Olana Partnership. The Olana Partnership works in close collaboration with New York State to provide programming and interpretation at Olana State Historic Site.
Olana was the home and estate of Frederic Edwin Church, a famed landscape painter out of the Hudson River School founded by Thomas Cole. Frederic Church was one of Thomas Cole’s prized pupils.
Diana challenged us to imagine that we were Frederic Church or members of his family while exploring Olana and the grand estate. Rather than being Church, I imagined that I had accompanied Frederic Church on one last stroll around the property while he reflected upon his life there and beyond.
The story will be told as a pictorial reflection from the series of abstract “painterly” images I captured during the workshop. This pictorial reflection will be crafted and told in a multi-part series.
The day starts with a stroll around the immediate grounds surrounding the estate home of Church and his wife Isabel. This is Olana.
The Estate Home Exterior
As I approached Olana for the first time, I witnessed all of its stately, Victorian grandeur through the trees. Then I thought about how heart-warming and sentimental it would be for Church to return to his home one last time.
As I strolled around the exterior of the home and noted many of its highly ornate details and features, I wondered what Church’s motivation might’ve been for creating such a highly ornate and decorative exterior. If Church himself were here in the moment, he’d recall how much he and Isabel were inspired by their trips to Persia. The colors, the tiles, and the overall aesthetic all reflect back to these journeys.
I turned my lens away from Olana. Even though it is an overcast and foggy start to the day, I easily appreciated why such a location was chosen as a place to settle. Like me, Church would also turn away from the home in order to take in the view he enjoyed so often. On this day, the view was quite obscured by low clouds, some fog, and the threat of rain. Still, knowing the view so well, he would be able to imagine what lies beyond the haze. just across the Hudson River lay the Thomas Cole’s estate in the town of Catskill, NY.
He would learn to paint from this location, 20 years earlier, under the instruction of Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School, so it was only natural for him to choose this land for a home. Like me, he would turn his gaze back toward the house once more, soaking in the beauty, before venturing to other parts of the estate.
His memory might start to fade as he turns away.
He would linger a bit, perhaps recalling his four children playing and running up and down paths cutting through wild growth on the hill upon which Olana was built.
The Garden
As I moved about the exterior of the house, I noticed a flower garden along a southern facing flank of the upper most portion of the estate. I have no knowledge of the historical accuracy of the garden or its presence in Church’s time, but I’m sure he’d want to stroll through it today. He might even be tempted to paint it.
If he were to stroll through the garden today, it might remind him of the flowers of his own days at Olana. Perhaps a Morning Glory causes him to stop and reflect upon his wife Isabel.
Or, maybe another flower suddenly causes his mind to wander onto the loss of his first two children.
Perhaps a section of Purple Coneflowers captivates his heart because as a passionate painter of landscapes, I’m imagining that he’d love the joy that flowers bring. It was a welcomed reprieve from the previous moment’s grief.
A butterfly might remind him of just how fleeting his time at Olana might’ve been.
The Woodlands
From the flower garden, I noticed a path down into some trees. I ventured further from the home, but stopped at a bench in a clearing to appreciate the majestic view back toward the house. Just as I was compelled to look again, I am sure he, too, would look back one last time.
It is documented that Church planted many trees at Olana. I wonder if I might be gazing upon and tree bathing under the trees he planted. If he were here with me, he would be so pleased at how impactful they still are to the landscape, all these years later.
I wonder if he might stop to appreciate the lighting through the trees. As a landscape painter, Church would be a keen observer of light.
He might stop to appreciate the captivating texture of a White Birch.
The thick trunk of another tree might remind him of his painting, “The Charter Oak, Hartford,” before he turns to notice the barn down on his former farmstead.
End of part 1.
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I think it's a wonderful exercise to speculate on what Frederic Church would have noticed and taken in while strolling through Olana. Your use of ICM allows us to filter out modernity and somehow channel the past more directly. Frederic Church considered Olana to be his artistic masterpiece and you honor his work by looking at the totality of this place, beyond just the house. It's highly likely you were creating photographs under and around trees he planted - time is a flat circle in those moments! Looking forward to part 2!