Frederic Church’s 200th birthday celebrated with special gift

HUDSON―Visitors from across the Hudson Valley and beyond packed the Olana State Historic Site on Saturday for a bicentennial bash.

The celebration marked the 200th birthday of renowned artist Frederic Church, whose greatest masterpiece is his 19th century home, studio and designed landscape with sweeping views of the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains.

The afternoon included free access to the Persian-inspired “castle,” guided landscape and garden tours, and farm-based and hands-on activities for all ages, inspired by Church’s love for art, nature, and world travel. And, of course, there was a birthday present, tied with a giant red bow, fit for the momentous occasion.

Unveiled outside the Frederic Church Center for Art and Landscape, the gift was a one-of-a-kind bronze topographical relief map of the 250-acre property that will remain on display permanently.

“The Olana Partnership is excited to present a very special gift to Olana in honor of Frederic Church’s 200th birthday on a day of community celebration,” said Sean Sawyer, Washburn and Susan Oberwager president of the Olana Partnership, the non-profit partner of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation at the site.

“It was a very complex form to cast,” noted Sawyer, giving kudos to UAP, the art foundry with offices around the globe and locally in Orange County that created the piece.

Among those on hand for the presentation was State Senator Michelle Hinchey, who said the day is also a time to celebrate the work that goes into preserving the site and its public and educational programs.

“We are so lucky to have this,” said Hinchey. “I feel so fortunate to not just be the state senator for this incredible location, but to live here. To have this in our backyard is really special.”

City of Hudson Mayor Joseph Ferris recalled the words of Mark Twain, who after visiting Olana called it “an exalted hill of art.”

“I really love coming up here because so often you see the paintings but when you are up here you get to see that the vistas are just as stunning today as they were back then,” said Ferris.

Church, whose actual birthday is May 4, 1826, was born in Hartford, CT. At the age of 18, he went to study with Hudson River School founder Thomas Cole in Catskill.

Church and his wife Isabel married in 1860 and purchased the hillside property across the Hudson River from Cole’s home and studio. Over the next 40 years, they and their four children created the living landscape that they called “the farm” and later named Olana.

Following Church’s death in 1900, Olana went through a chain of heirs and was nearly sold to developers in the 1960s had it not been for a preservation campaign to save it. Among the advocates was former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

Olana was ultimately purchased by New York State in 1966 and opened to the public a year later. It is considered one of the most intact and well-preserved artistic environments in the United States and welcomes more than 170,000 visitors annually.

Today, Church’s paintings can be found in more than 70 public art museums across the United States and Europe. In 2011, his painting titled Twilight sold for $3,218,500 at Christie's New York.

His legacy lives on at The Metropolitan Museum of Art where he was a founding trustee, and in Niagara Falls where, as a parks commissioner of New York’s Central Park, Church championed the establishment of the nation’s first state park.

In 2026, to celebrate Church’s lasting impact on American art, museums across the country will present exhibitions and programs related to his work, including a groundbreaking exhibition at Olana which highlights Church’s role as a global artist. In addition, four new books will be published throughout the year, spanning Church’s life and artistic achievements.

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