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Treasures from Olana
Landscapes by Frederic Edwin Church
May 20 - September 10, 2006
Portland Museum of Art
Title: Twilight, a Sketch, 1858
Artist: Frederic Edwin Church (American 1826-1900)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 8 1/4 x 12 1/4 in
Olana State Historic Site, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.
Image Courtesy: Portland Museum of Art
Olana, the home of Frederic Edwin Church, in New York State, is undergoing a reconstruction phase and
that has enabled this exhibit of 18 paintings to travel outside of its usual home.
They will be on display for the residents and visitors of Maine to enjoy at the Portland Museum of Art
Frederic Edwin Church is one of the finest landscape artists that ever lived. The paintings on view are ones that
Church kept for himself or his family; many have a special personal or
artistic significance. Scenes of Maine, Jamaica, the Near East, and
Germany express Church’s impulse to capture grandiose landscapes from all
locales. From small and intimate to bold in scale and presentation,
these private works give a full sense of the range of Church’s career and
artistic output.
Title: The Parthenon and the Acropolis, Athens, April 1869
Artist: Frederic Edwin Church (American 1826-1900)
Medium: Oil on Paper Mounted on Canvas
Dimensions: 11 1/2 x 20 1/4 in
Olana State Historic Site, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.
Image Courtesy: Portland Museum of Art
Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School, trained him; Alexander von Humbolt, the explorer and naturalist, inspired him. Church was an avid traveler and this was reflected in his oeuvre with images created in his New York City studio of monumental pictures of subjects in South and North America (including many subjects in Maine),
the sub-Arctic, Europe, and the Near East.
Olana
In 1860 Church purchased the first of what would be several acres of land located south of Hudson, New York. These would
eventually become his home, Olana. He had admired architecture observed on a trip to the Near East in the late 1860s. He worked with the architect Calvert Vaux
to create a stone, brick, and polychrome stenciled home on the property
that reflected the architectural style that suited him.
Olana is regarded as Church’s most personal creation, his most complex work of art and his
last great masterpiece. It is a three-dimensional Hudson River landscape that was finished with the addition of his own Persian treasure house. The name means “a
fortress treasure house” in ancient Persia, though Olana in this case refers to the house and surrounding land.
Title: Study for "The Heart of the Andes", 1858
Artist: Frederic Edwin Church (American 1826-1900)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 10 1/4 x 18 1/4 in.
Olana State Historic Site, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.
Image Courtesy: Portland Museum of Art
Frederic Edwin Church landscaped the house specifically to capture the splendid views of the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains, unsurprisingly given these were subjects that were found throughout his paintings during his career.
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Title: El Khasné, Petra, April 1874
Artist: Frederic Edwin Church (American 1826-1900)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 60 1/2 x 50 1/4 in.
Olana State Historic Site, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.
Image Courtesy: Portland Museum of Art
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The works that he painted that graced his own walls were self-framed. Of these 18 form
the exhibit Treasures from Olana. Included is one of Church's larger and most famous works, El Khasné, Petra, a well-known place in Jordan.
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Treasures from Olana
Landscapes by Frederic Edwin Church
Portland Museum of Art:
May 20 - September 10, 2006
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