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Composing Olana
A Journey on Foot Through Frederic Church’s Greatest Work of Art
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The first and only book devoted to the landscape Frederic Church designed at Olana – what he considered his greatest work of art – timed to coincide with the bicentennial of his birth
Modelled on her acclaimed On the High Line (now in its third edition from Fordham University Press), Composing Olana unfolds as a series of walks along the seven carriage roads Frederic Edwin Church built here in 1860s-1880s. Along the way, LaFarge unpacks the history of everything we see, and much that we don’t, in the greater landscape, from the Ice Age geology that created it to the artists and conservationists who preserved it. We learn about lesser-known women painters of the Hudson River School; the Native Peoples who lived here before the Europeans arrived; and the mentorship of Church’s only teacher, Thomas Cole.
Archival letters, diaries, and historic accounts reveal Church’s vital role in preserving Niagara Falls; his contributions to Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and his engagement with music, photography, and global exploration throughout the second half of the 19th century.
Published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of his birth, Composing Olana enables readers to finally comprehend Church’s vital, and still not properly recognized, place in the American story. Illustrated with dozens of historic and contemporary photographs, it is both a guidebook and a meditation on American art, landscape, and preservation.
An innovative companion website, OlanaBook.com, provides hundreds of photos, audio clips from the soundscape, and an interactive version of the specially created “Rambler’s Map.” Designed as an accessible and lively companion for armchair readers and park visitors, Composing Olana shows why this landscape, still intact today, matters so profoundly in the history of American art and public parks.
Composing Olana is both a meditation and a companion—a way of seeing Frederic Church’s home and landscape with eyes newly opened. Drawing on years of historic research and traversing its winding paths and studying its panoramic views, LaFarge reveals how Church created his enduring masterpiece, which, to this reader, becomes as daring a design as its predecessor, Central Park.—Sara Cedar Miller, author of Before Central Park
A highly readable, informative guidebook to the landscape and views around Frederick Edwin Church’s unique hilltop house...it gives us the compelling and dramatic history not only of Church's original remaking of the landscape to conform to his vision, but also of more contemporary efforts to save the viewshed and keep that vision intact. All of this unfolds naturally and beautifully, in an engaging style.—Benjamin Swett, author of The Picture Not Taken, Route 22, and The Hudson Valley: A Cultural Guide
Here is another story about a quintessential American landscape, this one created by an artist in the heart of the Hudson Valley. As she did with On the High Line, LaFarge takes us on a rich, fascinating walking tour, uncovering countless stories, characters, relics of the industrial past, Ice Age geology, art, and insights into the cultural history and preservation of this beautiful, singular place.—Robert Hammond, co-founder, Friends of the High Line and co-author of High Line: The Inside Story of New York City’s Park in the Sky
